McIlroy tops Koepka in player of the year voting

This is where it all began last season for two-time defending CIMB Classic champion Justin Thomas. The FedExCup victory after five wins in 25 starts, including the PGA Championship. The 3-1-1 record at the Presidents Cup at Liberty National. The Player of the Year honors. It all began at TPC Kuala Lumpur, a 7,005-yard, par-72 track five miles from the city that hosts Southeast Asia’s only PGA TOUR event with full FedExCup points. The 72-hole stroke-play tournament features a 78-player field, with no cut, made up of players from three sanctioning bodies: the PGA TOUR, the Asian Tour and the Professional Golf Association of Malaysia. Five of the top 15 in last season’s FedExCup standings will make their first start of the new season: Thomas, Rookie of the Year Xander Schauffele, Hideki Matsuyama, Paul Casey and Pat Perez. Six other players also finished in the top 30 of the FedExCup. Others in the field include Presidents Cup International Team members Branden Grace, Charl Schwartzel, Jhonattan Vegas and Anirban Lahiri. Here are the featured groups. Kuala Lumpur is 12 hours ahead. All tee times are Eastern Time. Hideki Matsuyama, Pat Perez, Branden Grace: Matsuyama, a three-time TOUR winner last season who beat Thomas in a well-played singles match at the Presidents Cup at Liberty National, is the headliner of this group. Perez also won last season, parlaying his victory at the OHL Classic at Mayakoba into the best campaign of his career, a season in which he finally played his way into the TOUR Championship and finished a career-high 15th in the FedExCup. Grace went 1-2-2 for the Internationals at the recent Presidents Cup. Tee times: Wednesday 9:50 p.m. (ET) off first tee; Thursday 8:40 p.m. off 10th tee Si Woo Kim, Davis Love III, Paul Casey: This threesome features the very young (Kim, 22), the relatively old (Love, 53), and a player who improbably seems to be hitting his stride at age 40 (Casey). Kim is the most recent winner of THE PLAYERS Championship and showed admirable spunk during his recent Presidents Cup singles loss to Daniel Berger. Two-time PLAYERS champ Love is still trying to break Sam Snead’s record for oldest TOUR winner. And the ever-steady Casey had a chance to win the FedExCup before fading at the end to finish 11th. Tee times: Wednesday 9:40 p.m. off first tee; Thursday 8:30 p.m. off 10th tee Justin Thomas, Xander Schauffele, Gavin Green: Glamour group features reigning FedExCup champion and Player of the Year Thomas, who also happens to have won this tournament two years running, along with newly minted PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year and surprise TOUR Championship winner Schauffele, plus Asian Tour Order of Merit leader Green. After racking up five victories and 14 top-25 finishes in 25 starts last season, what will Thomas do for an encore? Tee times: Wednesday 8:40 p.m. off 10th tee; Thursday 9:40 p.m. off first tee Brendan Steele, Jhonattan Vegas, Charl Schwartzel: Steele won the PGA TOUR’s season-opener, successfully defending his Safeway Open title just hours before a massive wildfire swept through the area and forced an evacuation of the tournament host, Silverado Resort and Spa. Venezuela’s Vegas is coming off an impressive singles victory over Jordan Spieth at the Presidents Cup at Liberty National, where South Africa’s Schwartzel notched his own singles victory over Matt Kuchar to salvage some respect for the beaten International Team. Tee times: Wednesday 8:50 p.m. off 10th tee; Thursday 9:50 p.m. off first tee

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A perfect 3-0 in pool play this week at the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play, Ian Poulter is clearly firing on all cylinders — no surprise from the Ryder Cup stalwart who always seems to elevate his play for head-to-head contests. Poulter won this event in 2010 and now has a chance to win it for a second time even though he started this week as the No. 60 seed. There's clearly something about Poulter in this format. This is the eighth time that he has made the Round of 16 in this event, tied with Tiger Woods, Matt Kuchar and Sergio Garcia for most all time. However, following a pair of missed cuts, the three-time PGA TOUR winner was hardly in full flight prior to the Match Play. And at 61st in Strokes Gained: Putting, Poulter entered the week in Austin in the midst of his worst work with the flatstick since 2017. It's with respect to that portion of his game that the six-time Ryder Cupper made an interesting switch this week. Poulter put his Odyssey White Hot XG 7 putter in timeout as it has "gone cold," he said, and is gaming a new Scotty Cameron Phantom X 11 Prototype. Poulter's penchant for putter-testing is well-publicized, and he mentioned no shortage of the rock-rollers arrive at his doorstep from all variety of manufacturers. "I am kind of trying them and I’m trying to get the right feel, the right look, and Scottie [Cameron] made me one a week ago, two weeks ago," Poulter said. "I told him … I wanted some grooves in the face. He did it. It sits right, and that’s all I want. I want something that sits well, that looks nice and feels good. At the minute it’s working out quite nice!" According to Titleist, Poulter worked with Scotty Cameron tour rep Drew Page at last week's Honda Classic. Following some additional testing, he put it in play in Austin. "Ian just loved the look of the 11 and the way it sits on the ground," Page said. "Players continue to talk about how well the putter sets up and it's a big reason that more and more continue to go into play. It doesn't open, it doesn't close, it just sits perfect." Poulter's prototype putter has horizontal grooves on the face, whereas the retail Phantom X models feature a traditional milling pattern.

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Joel Dahmen got the job done in the Dominican Republic, winning the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship by one shot over Rafa Campos and Sam Ryder. Take a look at the clubs Dahmen used to win his first title on the PGA TOUR. RELATED: Final leaderboard Driver: Ping G425 LST (10.5 degrees) Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana TB 60 3-wood: Ping G425 Max Hybrid: Ping Anser (20 degrees) Irons: PXG 0311 Gen2 (4-PW) Wedges: PXG 0311 Sugar Daddy (50, 56, 60) Putter: Scotty Cameron Roundback Prototype Ball: Titleist Pro V1

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