McDowell faces possible one-stroke penalty after bad time following interview

Jhonattan Vegas (+225 for a Top 20) … With a little less than half the field having been tested by TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm in 2017 and/or 2018, and with four years having elapsed since the last edition of the Quicken Loans National, memories of the greens will be fuzzy. As a result, the theme of the Power Rankings was ball-striking and short game. The Venezuelan is just so-so when it comes to small ball, but he’s carved out a career with power and precision. He’s 11th in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee, 35th in greens hit and 37th in SG: Tee-to-Green. He’s also connected for four top 20s this season, including in each of his last two starts. Joel Dahmen (+250 for a Top 20) … Not that he’d remember it this way, but his first and only trip to TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm in 2018 served as the endpoint of the years when he still wasn’t posting results proving that he belonged at this level. A T23 at the Quicken Loans National that summer was the latest in a series of top 25s, but it wasn’t until he ripped off a T5-T2-T15-T8 heater immediately thereafter that he clinched his first appearance in the FedExCup Playoffs. Four seasons later and he’s poised for his fifth consecutive trip. His 2022 includes a pair of top 15s and he’s failed to cash in only three of 16 events on the season. One of the most accurate off the tee and on approach, both attributes that feed into the kind of profile that the temporary host course requires. Cam Davis (+333 for a Top 20) … If the most recent performance can be used to predict the next, then he would have appeared in the Power Rankings. The 27-year-old Aussie shared third place in his last start at Harbour Town with a tidy combination of maximizing his average of 11 greens in regulation per round with a strong game around the greens that landed him T3 in scrambling. Those splits would work again at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm where the targets are similarly small and salvaging pars will be more difficult from gnarlier rough, but we’ll get to see if can replicate what earned this attention in the first place. Martin Laird (+300 for a Top 20) … The four-time winner from Scotland will turn 40 in December. Since splashing on the PGA TOUR in 2008, the through line of his trajectory has been ball-striking. As he preps for his 339th career start, he slots fifth in total driving, 36th in greens in regulation and 25th in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green, so the more things have changed, the more he’s stayed the same. As a bonus, he’s also 23rd in scrambling. His is an overall model that worked well here in 2017 en route to a T3 and should again this week. Matthias Schwab (+400 for a Top 20) … Unlike one of last week’s star performers, Kurt Kitayama (T2), Schwab is a PGA TOUR rookie even though both are first-time members this season. Also like Kitayama, rookies Aaron Rai and David Lipsky are two-time winners on the DP WORLD Tour. That’s where the winless Schwab falls short, but all four are in the field this week. Before the other three caught fire of late, it was the Austrian who ignited for a T7 at The Honda Classic where fellow countryman, Sepp Straka, broke through. Schwab followed with an identical finish in Puerto Rico, and then added a T8 in San Antonio. Because TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm won’t expose his relative weakness in terms of distance off the tee, he can lean on a strong aerial attack into the small targets and flash his world-class flatstick on them. Odds were sourced on Tuesday, May 3, 2022. For live odds, visit BetMGM.

Click here to read the full article…

Tadd Fujikawa, who as a 16-year-old amateur made the cut at the 2007 Sony Open in Hawaii, announced on his Instagram account this week that he is gay. He is believed to be the first openly gay male professional golfer. Fujikawa wrote that he decided to make the announcement “in hopes of being an inspiration and making a difference in someone’s life.â€� “I thought that I didn’t need to come out because it doesn’t matter if anyone knows,â€� he wrote. “But I remember how much other’s stories have helped me in my darkest times to have hope. I spent way too long pretending, hiding, and hating who I was. I was always afraid of what others would think/say. I’ve struggled with my mental health for many years because of that and it put me in a really bad place. Now I’m standing up for myself and the rest of the LGBTQ community.â€� In 2006, Fujikawa played in the U.S. Open as a 15-year-old. He made the cut the following year at the Sony Open in his native Hawaii, turning 16 the Monday of tournament week. He is the third-youngest player to make a PGA TOUR cut, trailing only Tianlang Guan and Bob Panasik.  Fujikawa finished T20 after shooting consecutive 66s in the second and third rounds. He turned pro later that year. Fujikawa also contended in the 2009 Sony Open after shooting a third-round 62. He started the final round in sixth place before shooting 73 to finish T32. He also finished T19 at the 2012 Sony Open. He has competed in 15 PGA TOUR events, most recently in 2017 after he Monday qualified for the Sony Open. He last competed in a PGA TOUR-sanctioned event in 2017, playing five times on the Mackenzie Tour-PGA TOUR Canada. Fujikawa wrote last October about his struggles with anxiety and depression. He won the Hawaii State Open two months later, his first professional victory in seven years. “Honestly never thought this day would come again,â€� he wrote. “(Thank you) to everyone who has supported me and helped me to keep going when I was at my lowest. I am forever grateful.â€�

Click here to read the full article…

Jason Day, Jordan Spieth, Matt Jones, Jonas Blixt, Cameron Smith – these were the PGA TOUR winners young Australian Cameron Davis upstaged with a blistering final round at the Australian Open. Davis, who played his rookie season on the MacKenzie Tour – PGA TOUR Canada this year but failed to fire a shot, proved his big game acumen with a 7-under 64 in high winds at The Australian Golf Club. His 11-under total was enough to join the likes of Gene Sarazen, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Tom Watson, Greg Norman, Rory McIlroy and Spieth as winners of the Stonehaven Cup. While he sat on cloud nine after winning the fifth oldest national championship in the history of golf, Davis immediately started to shift his focus to final stage of Web.Com Tour Q-School set for a week’s time. He hopes to get status there but also has higher aspirations. The 6-foot, 4-inch Davis played in the OHL Classic at Mayakoba last season and was T15 in his only PGA TOUR event but was unable to keep up the form in Canada, finishing 76th on the order of merit. He’s hopeful this win might encourage a few tournament directors to extend invitations to TOUR events. “I always felt like if I play my very best golf I’d be able to compete (on the PGA TOUR),� the 22-year-old Davis said. “I’m going to try my best to come down from the excitement I’ve obviously got after winning this and then it’s another big week that we’ve got to get on top of. “I feel like I’m playing well obviously at the moment, so I’m feeling pretty good going into final stage, but it’s a whole different week, whole different golf course. “We’ve got to go back to work, start mapping the golf courses, get there early, just treat it like another week and you’ve got to start from scratch again.� For Day, it was a gut-wrenching finish to a tough year. Holding the 54-hole lead the 10-time PGA TOUR winner was the prohibitive favorite but shot a dismal 73 to drop to fifth. It’s the first time since 2012 he’s failed to have a win anywhere in the world and sends him into 2018 trying to find his feet once more. “It’s obviously a little bit disappointing to come out and not finish it, but I’ve just got to kind of look back on it and see what I need to do for next time, because you can’t be perfect all the time and I played three terrific rounds and I just didn’t put it together on Sunday,� Day said. “When you hold the lead and when everyone is expecting you to win, there’s a bit of added pressure. I was on the wrong side of momentum and if I could just get on the right side of momentum it may have been a different outcome.� Jones bogeyed four of his first six holes Sunday before storming back with seven birdies. Sadly he needed eight. Blixt had a 12-footer on the last to force a playoff only to leave it short. Their consolation was a berth in the 2018 Open Championship at Carnoustie along with Davis. Smith bogeyed the 13th and 15th holes down the stretch to surrender his chances. And the defending champion Spieth actually played nicely for a 67, moving him into eighth place and feeling better as he heads to the Hero World Challenge. Spieth failed to make many putts of importance throughout the week despite some impressive ball-striking. But with coach Cam McCormick as acting caddie while Michael Greller spends time with his new child the Texan is hopeful the learning curve from Sydney will be easier at Albany. “I’m playing beautifully, the putter felt great today, I found a nice trigger and I was getting through my putts a lot better than I was at the beginning of the week, and had that happened the whole week, I would definitely have been in contention,� Spieth said. “The game feels good, so I’ll get in there and having Cam see pretty much all the swings that I hit on the range and on the golf course, and all the putts, I have that kind of extra confidence that I know where things are throughout the swing and, so it should be easy, I shouldn’t have too many questions next week, which will be nice.�

Click here to read the full article…