Matt Kuchar, Ian Poulter happy to get Round 2 in at RBC Heritage

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Time for the final delivery in the FedExCup Playoffs as the top 30 players tee it up this week at East Lake Golf Club outside Atlanta. Bobby Jones’ East Lake Golf Club has been the only host to the FedExCup finale since it was introduced in 2007. Stretching to 7,346 (Par-70) this Tom Bendelow-Donald Ross-Rees Jones will reward those who find the Zoysia fairways and won’t have to judge fliers out of the nest-like Bermuda rough. No crowds this year also means no trampling of the rough so crooked shots could be penalized even more as they dive into the Bermuda. Once on the mini-verde Ultra dwarf Bermuda greens, keeping the ball below the hole is the only way to score. Putts above the hole will test the nerves as Bermuda will push 13 feet on the Stimpmeter. The 6,000-square foot complexes will give plenty of room to bail out but the more accurate iron players will be able to attack. First time on Bermuda since Wyndham as well! The way to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow this week will require solid ball-striking tee-to-green and grinding out pars. Henrik Stenson’s tournament record of 13-under was matched last year by Rory McIlroy extending the streak of winners to four who were double digits under par. You’ll have to do your own math on the scoreboard as the field will be assigned a score based on their final ranking before the event starts. It’s pretty simple to follow: lowest score wins! A five-year exemption on TOUR will also accompany the bonus money so there’s plenty to fight for over 72 holes starting Friday and ending on Labor Day Monday. Of the 30 players, 21 return to East Lake while almost a third of the field is first time participants. Recent Winners at East Lake 2019: Rory McIlroy (-18) Began the event on 5-under in fifth place. … Posted 13-under over four rounds to win by four. … Sat two back after 54 holes. … Led the field in Strokes-Gained: Off-the-Tee, Tee-to-Green, Par-5 scoring, Driving Distance and was T1 in Bogey Avoidance. … Only player to post four rounds in the 60s. … Joins Tiger Woods as only multiple FedExCup winner. … Will look to become the first to win three. … No player has defended the FedExCup. … No player has defended a FedExCup event. Notables Playing This Week: 2017 tournament champion Xander Schauffele led by one after 54 holes before cashing second. … Schauffele’s 64 to open was the low round of the week. … 2017 FedExCup Champion Justin Thomas (T3) led the field in Strokes-Gained: Around the Green and was second in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee. … Tony Finau (T7) posted his second top 10 in three years. … Kevin Kisner (T9) and Hideki Matsuyama (T9) collected second consecutive top 10s while Patrick Reed (T9) posted a career-best payday. … Only seven players made LESS than 10 bogeys. 2018: Tiger Woods (-11) Went wire-to-wire to win for the second time but the FedExCup trophy went to Justin Rose (T4) on total points. This is why the system finally changed last year! … Only winner in the last four years NOT to lead Strokes-Gained: Off the Tee (6th). … Only winner in four not to finish in the top 2 of Strokes-Gained: Tee to Green (7th). … Led the field in Bogey Avoidance, Scrambling and Putting: Birdie or Better Percentage. Notables Playing This Week: 2014 FedExCup champion Billy Horschel (2nd) picked up his third top 10 in three starts. … Dustin Johnson (3rd) cashed his best finish and fifth top 10 in nine trips. … Hideki Matsuyama and Webb Simpson shared fourth. … McIlroy, Schauffele and Thomas rounded off the top 10 at T7. … 65 was the lowest round of the week. 2017: Xander Schauffele (-12) Rookie debutant posted all four rounds in the 60s to win by two. … Justin Thomas, who finished second, won the FedExCup Playoffs. … Led the field in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee and was second Tee to Green. … Third in Ball-Striking. … Won Greenbrier earlier that year. Notables: Four players finished double digits under par including Kevin Kisner (T3). … Tony Finau and Jon Rahm each debuted with T7 and haven’t missed a TOUR Championship since. Key stat leaders Top golfers in each statistic on the 2019-2020 PGA TOUR are listed only if they are scheduled to compete this week. * – Previous FedExCup event winner Strokes-Gained: Tee to Green 1 *Justin Thomas 2 Hideki Matsuyama 3 *Rory McIlroy 4 Collin Morikawa 5 *Jon Rahm 7 *Xander Schauffele 8 Tony Finau 10 Daniel Berger 11 *Dustin Johnson 12 *Webb Simpson 14 Tyrrell Hatton 15 Scottie Scheffler 17 *Bryson DeChambeau 19 Harris English 20 Joaquin Niemann 23 Viktor Hovland 25 Ryan Palmer 28 *Patrick Reed Ball-Striking 3 *Jon Rahm 4 *Webb Simpson 8 *Xander Schauffele 11 Harris English 14 *Dustin Johnson 16 *Scottie Scheffler 21 Collin Morikawa 22 Tyrrell Hatton 35 *Bryson DeChambeau 39 Daniel Berger 39 Viktor Hovland 47 *Justin Thomas 48 *Rory McIlroy 48 *Billy Horschel Bogey Avoidance 1 *Webb Simpson 2 Harris English 3 *Jon Rahm 5 *Xander Schauffele 6 *Bryson DeChambeau 8 Daniel Berger 9 *Justin Thomas 11 Abraham Ancer 20 Tyrrell Hatton 21 Hideki Matsuyama 23 Brendon Todd 25 Tony Finau 27 Kevin Kisner 34 Sungjae Im Frequent Fliers (previous visits) Dustin Johnson (10): Only one podium finish but has cashed half of his trips inside the top 10. Webb Simpson (7): T4 in 2018 is the best over the last three years bookended by T16 last year and T13 in 2017. Rory McIlroy (6): Twice a winner and five times in the top 10 ends any speculation. Patrick Reed (6): T9 suggests he might have finally figured it out. Hideki Matsuyama (6): Streaking with consecutive top 10s and his seventh consecutive appearance, as noted above. Giddy Up Justin Thomas (4): 34-under the last four years (68.50); winner of the FedExCup Playoff but never the event as he’s cashed T3-T7-2nd-T6. Xander Schauffele (3): Win, T7 and second. 67.75 stroke average and nothing above 70. Billy Horschel (3): T7 on debut followed up with the 2014 title; 2nd 2018 and worst round of 12 is 71. Caution Kevin Na (6): Only six rounds in the red with T16 the best of the six trips. Marc Leishman (4): Only four rounds of 16 attempts in the red; best payday T21. Daniel Berger (3): T12 on debut followed by T15 and 15th. Bryson DeChambeau (2): Starting to figure it out as T12 last year followed T19 in 2018.

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – History does not favor Si Woo Kim this week. No champion of THE PLAYERS Championship has successfully defended in the 44 years of the tournament. The best result by a defending champ are the T-5s posted by Jack Nicklaus (1977), Tom Kite (1990) and Hal Sutton (2001). More to the point, the defending champ rarely finds himself in contention, and is more apt to miss the cut. Since Sutton’s result, the last 16 results by the defending PLAYERS champ includes four missed cuts, a WD, a DNP and just one top-10 finish – by Adam Scott, who tied for eighth in 2005. A year ago, Jason Day tied for 60th after shooting a final-round 80. Meanwhile, Kim became the youngest champ in PLAYERS history, winning by three strokes. It was an unexpected victory – and Kim continued to produce the unexpected Thursday. His 5-under 67 is the lowest opening score by a defending champ since the tournament moved to TPC Sawgrass in 1982. Had he not stumbled down the stretch with bogeys in two of his last three holes, he would’ve been the first-round leader. “I played great,� said the 22-year-old Korean, who began his round off the 10th tee and was a bogey-free 7 under for his first 14 holes. “… I liked the score in the first round, but I can hit it better.� Day arrived at TPC Sawgrass in 2017 still dealing with issues involving his mother’s battle with cancer. It did not leave him in the proper frame of mind to defend, but he also acknowledged that it’s difficult to defend in a tournament that produces the best field of the season. “This tournament is heightened,� he said. “The level of it just goes up every single year. I think it gets closer and closer to a major championship feel every single year that we play, and I feel like a lot of the guys think that it’s a major championship.� And just like a major, there are few successful defenses. The last one came at the Open Championship in 2008 when Padraig Harrington won at Royal Birkdale. Since the end of World War II, a total of 289 majors have been played – and the defending champ has won just 14 times, a success rate of less than 5 percent. Of course, that’s still better than the zero percent for defending PLAYERS champ. Asked after his round Thursday about what it would mean to be the first player to achieve that feat, Kim replied, “I feel like it would be dreaming, but that’s too hard. This is just the first round. I’m going to keep working hard.� Probably a wise move. Not only is he battling the best field in golf, he’s battling history. Notables Bubba Watson has made 10 starts at TPC Sawgrass. His best result was a T-37 in 2013. But his opening 68 – which ties for his lowest score in his last 21 rounds here – has him on personal-best pace. “Every time I come here, I’m just trying to beat 37,� Watson said. “I’m no good around this place. It’s very difficult for me because of the sights off the tee, some of the trees. It makes me fear hitting shots that I want to hit.� On Thursday he hit a respectable 10 fairways and 13 greens. Rule, Britannia? The English group of Justin Rose (68), Tommy Fleetwood (69) and Ian Poulter (70) combined for 9 under. Neither Poulter nor Rose, the two veterans, could ever remember playing in an all-English threesome at a PGA TOUR event. “I was alerted by the TOUR maybe last week some time that they were thinking about that group,� Rose said. “It was exciting to hear it.� It’ll be even more exciting if at least one of them can remain in contention Sunday, especially since no Englishman has ever won THE PLAYERS. Webb Simpson was among the attendees for a dinner local resident Jim Furyk hosted at his house Wednesday night for Ryder Cup hopefuls. Simpson is 23rd in the U.S. standings, but his 6-under 66 no doubt caught the captain’s attention. “I’ve still got a lot of work to do to get on the team, but it was nice to be there,� Simpson said. Jordan Spieth opened bogey-bogey-eagle-double en route to a 3-over 75. It wasn’t as bad it looked, though. During one three-hole stretch, he said he “lost three strokes with a total of 6 feet in the landing zone� and added that other than two bad swings, he “played good golf and just didn’t get rewarded for it.� Brooks Koepka, who recently returned to action after missing most of this year with an injured left wrist, re-aggravated the problem when he stopped in mid-swing during a practice session Wednesday in order to avoid a cart driver who had accidentally driven in front of him 15 yards away. “It’s the first time my strength actually backfired, to be strong enough to actually stop it,� said Koepka, who was hitting 3-iron stingers to practice for shots needed at the 18th hole. “He would’ve been dead. It was perfect timing.� Koepka iced the wrist overnight, then shot a bogey-free 2-under 70. Quotables My cut-to-top-6 ratio is pretty good.It’s hard not to have a smile on your face when you shoot 5 under at this place.I really don’t think I have anything to work on this afternoon. I think it’s time to go to the beach with the kids.

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