Memo: PGA Tour denies releases for LIV event

JEJU ISLAND, South Korea (AP) — Brooks Koepka won THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES on Sunday by four strokes. Koepka, the reigning PGA TOUR Player of the Year, shot a final-round 8-under 64 for a 21-under total of 267. Koepka led by four strokes after three rounds. Gary Woodland certainly made it interesting. Woodland started the day five strokes behind Koepka but pulled level after making six birdies in seven holes on the front nine. The two dueled on the back nine, with Woodland birdieing Nos. 15 and 16 to again pull level. But Koepka did the same, and a bogey by Woodland on the par-3 17th gave Koepka the cushion he needed to close out the win despite a birdie on the 18th by Woodland. The biggest moment came on the 16th. Koepka went from a fairway bunker to just left of the green, about 70 feet away. Koepka hit a chip-and-run that was stopped by the pin and dropped for the birdie. Koepa finished with a 25-foot eagle putt for a 29 on the back nine. Woodland finished second after a 63. Ryan Palmer birdied his last seven holes to shoot 62 and finish in a tie for third place with Rafa Cabrera Bello (65), four strokes behind Koepka. Defending champion Justin Thomas finished at 5-under after a 68 Sunday. It was Koepka’s 12th victory worldwide, including four wins on the European Challenge Tour. He now has won in seven countries – the U.S., South Korea, Spain, Italy, Japan, Turkey and Scotland. The PGA TOUR heads to Shanghai next week for the final stop on its Asian swing, the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions.

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Only 30 players are left in the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs. They all head to the Tour Championship hoping to get their hands on the winner’s $15 million paycheck.

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Fresh off his Presidents Cup debut, Sam Burns returns this week to the Country Club of Jackson (Miss.) to defend his title at the Sanderson Farms Championship. His win at last year’s Sanderson Farms was the second title of his career. He added Nos. 3 and 4 later that season with a successful title defense at the Valspar Championship and a playoff victory over world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler at the Charles Schwab Challenge. It was a season to remember for Burns, whose eight top-10s included the three wins and a runner-up. He finished in the top 25 in more than half his starts, as well. Equipment-wise, Burns is starting right where he left off last season. That comes as no surprise, since Burns rarely changes or even tweaks his equipment. In fact, he has made just three changes to his setup since his win in Mississippi last year. At the beginning of 2022, he added: 1) A new driver 2) A unique utility wood 3) A wild prototype “attack,” or “approach” wedge Below, GolfWRX.com takes you through those changes and the rest of his equipment setup as he looks to defend his Sanderson Farms title: Driver: Callaway Rogue ST Triple Diamond (10.5 degrees; Fujikura Ventus Blue 7TX shaft) Last year, Burns used a Callaway Epic Speed driver with a Fujikura Ventus Blue 7TX shaft. At the start of 2022, however, he upgraded into Callaway’s new Rogue ST Triple Diamond driver, which he equipped with the same Fujikura Ventus Blue shaft he was previously using. Callaway representative Johnny Wunder said Burns switched because the new driver caused the ball to hold its integrity a lot longer on the way down. That mitigated a “float-y right miss that would creep up,” Wunder said. The Ventus Blue 7TX shaft offered him a softer feel with the added benefit of a very stable tip section. “As a rotational swinger of the golf club,” Wunder said. “Sam likes shafts that have a little play in the midsection with reduced torque at impact.” 4-Wood: Callaway Mavrik Sub Zero (17 degrees; Fujikura Ventus Black 8X shaft) While Burns’ Callaway Mavrik Sub Zero fairway wood is listed as 17 degrees on the club, it’s actually adjusted to 15.5 degrees. By lowering the loft, the club face now sits slightly open at address, but Burns can still achieve the launch and spin windows he wants at 15.5 degrees. According to Callaway, Burns hits his 4-wood 265-270 yards off the tee with 3,500-3,700 rpm of spin. He hits it 260-265 yards with around 4,000 rpm from off the turf. This club is built to fill the yardage gap between Burns’ driver and his utility wood. Utility: Callaway Apex UW (21 degrees; Fujikura Ventus Blue 8X shaft) Back at last year’s Sanderson Farms Championship, Burns was still using a Callaway Apex Pro 4 hybrid from 2015. Although Burns is reluctant to switch clubs, he replaced the longtime hybrid at the end of 2021 with Callaway’s all-new Apex UW utility wood that goes a bit farther and higher than his former hybrid. The enhanced performance allows Burns to work the ball both ways, and land softer on the greens to make the ball stop quicker. Irons: Callaway Apex TCB (4-PW, AW; Project X 6.5 shafts) Burns worked with Callaway during the winter of 2020 to help tighten his dispersion from his previous Apex Pro Double-Dot irons. He ended up transitioning into the Apex TCB irons, which improved his consistency in terms of launch and spin. He’s been using the irons ever since, and the stats have showed that they have paid off. After ranking outside the top 125 in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green in both 2019 and 2020, Burns has been in the top 30 of that stat in each of the previous two seasons. He ranked a career-best 18th in that stat last season (+0.55 per round) after ranking 138th in 2020 (-0.18). Uniquely, as we highlighted in a previous Equipment Report, Burns added an A wedge (the A stands for “attack,” or “approach”) at the end of 2021. Working with his coach Brad Pullin, the duo wanted to improve his approach game, and they replaced his former Callaway Jaws MD5 50-degree wedge with an A-wedge version of his Apex TCB irons that has a wider sole, more bounce, and offers more overall forgiveness than the traditional wedge design. As it turns out, the A-wedge addition may have paid off, since Burns finished 12th on the PGA TOUR in Approaches from 125-150 yards in 2021-22. Wedges: Callaway Jaws MD5 Raw (56-10S, 60-12X; True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 shaft) For his other two wedges, Burns opts to use the Callaway Jaws MD5 Raw models. Most notably, Burns uses an X grind on his 60-degree lob wedge that has 20 degrees of bounce on the sole. While that’s relatively a lot of bounce when the face sits square, he has relief on the toe and heel sections of the sole for added versatility when playing shots with different face orientations or lie angles. Putter: Odyssey O-Works #7S Black Lastly, Burns rounds out his bag with his longtime Odyssey O-Works #7S Black putter, which he’s had in the bag throughout his PGA TOUR career. “Bermuda Burns,” as they call him, has three PGA TOUR wins on Bermuda greens so far, and he returns to the Country Club of Jackson’s Bermuda greens again this week. Can he add another Bermuda win to further validate his nickname? Burns is one of the best putters on TOUR on any surface, however. Over the previous five seasons (2018-22), Burns has the third highest Strokes Gained: Putting (+0.51) of anyone on TOUR with a minimum of 250 measured rounds. He has ranked in the top 10 of Strokes Gained: Putting in each of the previous two seasons.

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