McIlroy pulls even with Fleetwood for lead

Charles Howell III is headed to the TOUR Championship … provided that the historical trend of recent FedExCup Playoffs holds in the revamped schedule for the 2018-19 PGA TOUR season. Thanks to his win Sunday at The RSM Classic, Howell moved to the top of the FedExCup standings after the completion of the fall portion of the wraparound schedule. The previous five players who have finished the fall atop the standings each eventually advanced to the 30-man Playoffs finale at East Lake in their given season. That’s the good news for Howell. The bad news is that none of those five won the FedExCup. Jimmy Walker, the fall points leader in the 2013-14 season, had the best overall finish at seventh in points. Last year’s fall leader, Patton Kizzire, just squeezed into East Lake and finished 30th. This season’s FedExCup Playoffs offers an unknown factor than previous seasons, since the Playoffs have been reduced from four to three tournaments. But if Howell can maintain his position inside the top 30 after the second event, the BMW Championship, he will advance to the TOUR Championship for the first time since 2011. PREVIOUS FALL POINTS LEADERS ON THE FLIP SIDE None of the last five FedExCup champions earned less than 34 points in the fall events (Jordan Spieth in 2015). In fact, the other four champions earned at least 100 points in the fall; last season’s champ, Justin Rose, finished the fall a year ago with 550 points. That historical trend is bad news for notables such as Dustin Johnson (who currently has 28 points), Rory McIlroy (six points) and Jordan Spieth (six points). PLENTY OF POINT-GATHERERS A total of 215 players earned at least one point this fall – that’s the most in the six seasons of the wraparound schedule. Getting at least one point in the fall gives a player better than a 50-50 chance of making the Playoffs. In the previous five seasons, a total of 1,023 players earned points in the fall – and nearly 57 percent of those players went on to qualify for the FedExCup Playoffs Taking it one more step, more than 12 percent of those players made it to the TOUR Championship. But here’s the most telling statistic that emphasizes the importance of the fall – just 21 of a possible 150 players earned a spot in the TOUR Championship after failing to play or earn at least a single point in the fall. Tiger Woods did that last season … and he’ll hope to do it again this season. WHO IS THE FALL KING? In the five years of the wraparound schedule, no player has earned more FedExCup points than Justin Thomas – not surprising since three of his nine career wins have come in the fall (CIMB Classic in 2015 and 2016; CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES in 2017). Ryan Moore, Russell Knox and Charles Howell III are the next three players on that list. Thomas has made 18 fall starts in the history of the wraparound schedule to accumulate his 2,087 points. That’s an average of 115.9 points per start – good, but not the best. No player has been more efficient in the fall than current FedExCup champ Justin Rose. He has made five starts in the wraparound schedule since the 2013-14 season and has averaged 195 points per start. Dustin Johnson (five starts) is next at 185.6, followed by Patrick Cantlay (six starts, 164.3 average), then Thomas. Reigning PGA TOUR Player of the Year Brooks Koepka is fifth on the list (12 starts, 109.2 average).

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SHEBOYGAN, Wis. – European lynchpin Rory McIlroy has been benched at the Ryder Cup for the first time in his career after a dreadful Friday at Whistling Straits. RELATED: Full pairings, preview for Saturday morning Foursomes | Recap from Day 1 McIlroy was left out of Saturday mornings Foursomes pairings by Captain Padraig Harrington after two heavy and demoralizing defeats on the opening day. The 32-year-old lost 5 and 3 with Ian Poulter in Friday Foursomes against Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay before backing up in Four-ball with Shane Lowry – only to be dominated 4 and 3 against Tony Finau and Harris English. It was the first time in his Ryder Cup career McIlroy had lost twice in one day. But he wasn’t the only European player to find the going tough with the U.S. taking a commanding 6-2 lead as they look to win the Cup back for just the second time in the last six attempts. McIlroy has played every possible session in his Ryder Cup career since making his debut in 2010. He did miss the second Four-ball session at Celtic Manor in Wales that year but only due to bad weather affecting play. Captains were forced to adjust on the run leaving players with a maximum of four sessions as the schedule condensed before a Monday finish. Despite the shellacking Harrington claimed the two-time FedExCup champion would bounce back and he had no concerns with McIlroy’s leadership. “He’s already a leader. You saw him out there after a tough day, he was out following those matches and supporting his team,” Harrington said. “He is very much a leader amongst his peers and I couldn’t have asked more from him during the year, I couldn’t have asked more from him today. “The golf didn’t go as well as he would have liked, but I’m not second-guessing him for a second in terms of his leadership and what he does for my team.” McIlroy found himself behind the eight-ball from the get-go and never recovered. Ryder Cup rookies in recent FedExCup champion Cantlay and Olympic Gold medalist Schauffele won the first five holes in their Foursomes encounter and despite a small lull mid round, came home with a vengeance. They birdied their last four holes to close out the match on the 15th. “The start wasn’t great. I don’t know if anyone could have beat Xander and Patrick today. They played really good,” McIlroy lamented. “They were a great pairing today, and all you can do is praise them for the way they played.” In the afternoon session McIlroy looked primed to turn his day around when an eagle at the par-5 5th produced a 1 up lead but it went pear-shaped from there. He failed to find a birdie from that point on and made two bogeys. Lowry could only manage a string of pars while Finau fired up. After driving the par-4 6th green to secure a birdie Finau added more on nine, 10 and 13 while English chimed in with one on the par-4 8th to rout the Irish/Northern Irish connection. “The last two sessions, Xander, Patrick, played wonderful, and I haven’t seen Tony putt as good as that in a long time,” McIlroy said. “When you have got a couple of pairs like that on form, on a difficult golf course where it’s sort of hard to make birdies and they go on runs, if you’re not quite a hundred percent on top of your game, it’s tough.” Despite the poor start McIlroy was still of the opinion Europe could stage a comeback. That effort will have to start without him though. “We can come back from 6-2. If it’s 6-2, we can come back,” he stressed.

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