Monday Finish: Golf’s least predictable tournament

The Wells Fargo Championship takes place this year at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm. In recent years, it has been played at Charlotte’s Quail Hollow Club, but that venue is hosting the Presidents Cup in September. Two-time FedExCup winner Rory McIlroy headlines the field as he looks to defend his title from last season. Abraham Ancer returns to both an event (runner-up last season) and golf course (shares the course record) where he has displayed strong form. The winner of the event will pocket 500 FedExCup points. Here’s everything you need to know to follow the action, including Featured Groups for PGA TOUR LIVE and newly expanded and extended coverage on ESPN+. Click here for more details. Leaderboard Full tee times HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday-Friday, 2 p.m.-6 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday-Sunday, 1 p.m.-3 p.m. (Golf Channel), 3 p.m.-6 p.m. (CBS) Radio: Thursday-Friday, 12 p.m.–6 p.m. ET. Saturday-Sunday, 1 p.m.–6 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio) For outside of the U.S., click here for GOLFTV powered by the PGA TOUR PGA TOUR LIVE PGA TOUR Live is available exclusively on ESPN+ • Main Feed: primary tournament-coverage featuring the best action from across the course • Marquee Group: new “marquee group” showcasing every shot from each player in the group • Featured Groups: traditional PGA TOUR LIVE coverage of two concurrent featured groups • Featured Holes: a combination of par-3s and iconic or pivotal holes FEATURED GROUPS THURSDAY Marquee Group Rory McIlroy, Webb Simpson, Francesco Molinari Featured Groups Tony Finau, Tyrrell Hatton, Sepp Straka Abraham Ancer, Marc Leishman, Corey Conners Featured Holes: No. 3 (par 3), No. 9 (par 3), No. 12 (par 3), No. 17 (par 3) FRIDAY Marquee Group Rickie Fowler, Jason Day, Max Homa Featured Groups Sergio Garcia, Gary Woodland, Luke List Patrick Reed, Paul Casey, Joel Dahmen Featured Holes: No. 3 (par 3), No. 9 (par 3), No. 12 (par 3), No. 17 (par 3) MUST READS The First Look Power Rankings Expert Picks Odom Jr. prepares for first TOUR start Five Things to Know: TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm

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GREENSBORO, N.C. – Plenty was on the line at this week’s Wyndham Championship, with the top 125 in the FedExCup standings advancing to the Playoffs, as well as the finale of the Wyndham Rewards Top 10 competition and Aon Risk Reward Challenge. Here’s a quick look at each one after Sunday’s final round at Sedgefield Country Club. FedExCup Update: Two players played their way into the top 125 – Patton Kizzire, who moved from No. 129 to 118th, and Andrew Landry, who went from No. 132 to 123rd. … Falling out of the top 125 are Robert Streb, who came in No. 124 and dropped four spots after missing the cut, and Alex Noren, the bubble boy, who ended up No. 129 after tying for 60th at the Wyndham Championship. … Both Noren and Streb will be able to compete in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, which begin Aug. 15 in Columbus, Ohio, at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Open, where 25 PGA TOUR cards will be up for grabs. Patton Kizzire: The Auburn grad, who shot 67 on Sunday, his fourth round in the 60s and tied for 13th, will be competing in the Playoffs for the fourth straight season. The 33-year-old reached the TOUR Championship a year ago. He’s exempt through the end of the 2021 season after winning twice last year. “I’ve never missed the FedExCup Playoffs, so I certainly didn’t want to do that this year,â€� Kizzire said. “I felt like I had a lot to play for and really grinded. I wasn’t breathing real easy out there. There was a lot of trying going on, and it was a fight until the end. I feel pretty good about how I did.â€� Andrew Landry: Landry, who is exempt through the end of the 2019-20 season after winning the 2018 Valero Texas Open, will be making his second straight appearance in the FedExCup Playoffs. He finished No. 37 last year. Landry closed with a 70 on Sunday and wasn’t quite sure it was good enough to move him into the top 125 but he held steady in the projections as the last few groups finished. “I was obviously trying to get myself in contention to win the golf tournament and I just kind of felt on the back nine I started thinking more of the FedExCup than it was winning a golf tournament,â€� Landry said. “I’m good with an exemption for next year and it was definitely stress free, but for some odd reason it was on my mind to get into those Playoff events. You know, it’s a big relief off my shoulders to be able to go play THE NORTHERN TRUST and try to get myself in the top 70. My game’s sharp right now, I’m playing really well and just looking forward to next week.â€� RELATED: Poston breaks through for first win | What’s in J.T. Poston’s bag? | FedExCup standings Worth Noting Pat Perez missed the cut but held onto a spot in the Playoffs at No. 125 by two points over Richie Werenski … Zach Johnson’s streak of making the Playoffs every year since the inception of the FedExCup ended when he tied for 53rd at the Wyndham Championship and finished No. 154. … Nine other players’ streaks are in tack, though – Charley Hoffman, Charles Howell III, Matt Kuchar, Phil Mickelson, Ryan Moore, Justin Rose, Adam Scott, Brandt Snedeker and Bubba Watson. … J.T. Poston, who made the Wyndham Championship his first PGA TOUR victory, will be competing in the Playoffs for the second straight year. He’s put himself in position to make the TOUR Championship, too – moving from No. 83 to 27th with the win. … Speaking of East Lake, Rory Sabbatini has made the Playoffs 12 of the 13 years the FedExCup has been in existence. He’s only advanced to the TOUR Championship once – in 2007 – but is making a strong bid this year. He tied for sixth at Sedgefield and currently stands No. 36 in the FedexCup. … Viktor Hovland fell short in his bid to earn enough FedExCup points as a non-member to earn his card for next season. He ended up with 308 – which would have put him 144th. Hovland closed with a 65 and finished solo fourth, his fourth top-20 in five starts as a pro. So he’ll head to the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. “I feel like I’ve just playing better and better every single week, and obviously this is my best finish throughout the five tournaments that I played,â€� Hovland said. “I’ve just got to keep it going in the Korn Ferry Finals and hopefully I’ll make it through.â€� … Johnson Wagner, Josh Teater and Harris English played their way into the top 150 at Nos. 141, 146 and 149, respectively. That means they will have conditional status on TOUR for 2019-20, at the very least, and could earn a TOUR card via the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. “I plan on going and being real focused and treating them like just like they were the PGA TOUR Playoffs,â€� said Wagner, who is a a three-time TOUR winner. “In years past in those things I’ve had a bad attitude. I’ve skipped events. I’m excited to go to work next week and be ready mentally to do what I need to do.â€� … Teater missed a 10-footer on the 18th hole but looked back at No. 8 on Saturday as equally costly when he picked his ball up in the fairway (the first two rounds were played under lift, clean and place rules but not the third). “I didn’t have a clue,â€� he said when asked about the putt on the 18th hole. “Obviously I wanted to make it, but they told me in the scoring area that it may have jumped me into the 125. But there’s so much golf, I probably would have got bumped out. I mean, what if? What if I didn’t pick my ball up on the fairway yesterday when I wasn’t supposed to? Maybe that’s the ‘what if’ we should ask.â€� Wyndham Rewards Top 10 Webb Simpson was the only player to move into the Wyndham Rewards Top 10. Simpson, the 2011 winner of the Wyndham Championship, finished solo second, the 10th runner-up finish of his career, on Sunday and moved from No. 13 to No. 9 — earning an additional $550,000 bonus. When the former Wake Forest All-American moved in, Justin Rose was knocked out of the No. 10 spot which cost him $500,000. Simpson gave himself chance at the bonus when he tied for second a week ago at the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational to move from No. 26 to 13th in the FedExCup. “Honestly, it wasn’t even on the radar going into Memphis,â€� Simpson said. “I was too far back, I thought, unless I did something crazy. So yeah, it was on my mind this week after second last week. I’m so thankful to Wyndham for feeling the need to jump in and be the first one to sponsor a regular season bonus for play that’s been going on since October. And they did a great job, so I’m thankful to them for that.â€� Paul Casey, who was the only player in the top 10 who competed in Greensboro, could have risen as far as fourth with a victory. He played well, starting the final round tied for fifth, three strokes off the pace, but ran out of gas on Sunday after playing four straight weeks. “It’s actually a perfect example of why we’re taking next week off,â€� said Casey, who shot 69 in the final round and tied for 13th. “… I miss my family. And I gave it a good shot today, but just ran out of energy.â€� He finished where he started at No. 8 and earned a $600,000 bonus. Aon Risk Reward Challenge The Aon Challenge is officially over with Brooks Koepka, adding another $1 million to his regular season bonus bounty. He beat Jason Day in a tiebreaker. Both Jason Kokrak and Noren came to the Wyndham Championship with an outside shot to overtake him but the elusive albatross was involved and their bids fell short.

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Dow Finsterwald, a long-time PGA TOUR professional who won the 1958 PGA Championship and captained the winning 1977 U.S. Ryder Cup team, died November 4. He was 93. As a young man growing up in Athens, Ohio, born in 1929, Finsterwald played numerous sports but gravitated toward golf even though his father, Russ, was the head basketball and football coach at Ohio University. The younger Finsterwald joined his father as a Bobcat but as a member of the golf team. It was at Ohio University where Finsterwald realized he could make a living playing golf. “Dow was destined to a career in sports because of his father’s influence, and golf was fortunate to have him as a player, teacher and administrator,” said PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan. “His contributions to our sport were significant, and we take time today to remember Dow and all of his accomplishments in a well-lived life.” Finsterwald joined the PGA TOUR in 1952 after playing in eight TOUR tournaments in 1950 and 1951 as an amateur. Finsterwald made his TOUR debut while still an amateur, at the 1950 North and South Open at Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina, where he tied for 33rd. He played on TOUR as a professional for the first time at the National Celebrities Open, tying for 35th. Finsterwald’s first of 12 PGA TOUR victories came at the 1955 Fort Wayne Invitational. Six weeks later, he won again – at the British Columbia Open in Canada. He enjoyed 10 top-10s in his 28 made cuts that season and finished 14th on the money list. Those 1955 victories began a streak of six years where he won at least one tournament. Finsterwald’s top season came in 1959. That year, he won three times – the Greater Greensboro Open, the Carling Open and the Kansas City Open – and finished second five additional times. A year earlier, Finsterwald earned his only major championship, winning the PGA Championship at Pennsylvania’s Llanerch Country Club. In the first year the PGA of America contested the tournament at stroke play, Finsterwald shot rounds of 67-72-70-67 to defeat Billy Casper by two strokes. He added the Utah Open title to his resume later in the season and went on to earn PGA Player of the Year honors, a year after capturing his only Vardon Trophy for the lowest stroke average on TOUR. Of his 28 second-place TOUR finishes, the most excruciating was his playoff loss – with Gary Player – to Arnold Palmer at the Masters Tournament. The trio finished regulation at Augusta National tied at 8-under 280, with Palmer eventually rolling to a three-shot playoff victory over Player and a nine-stroke win over Finsterwald in the 18-hole extra session. Taking away some of the sting from that loss was the fact Palmer was Finsterwald’s closest friend on TOUR. Theirs was a friendship that endured until Palmer’s death in 2016. While playing the TOUR, Finsterwald also was the Director of Golf at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Colo., a position he held for 28 years. He also served a three-year term as Vice President of the PGA of America. As his PGA TOUR career wound down, he enjoyed a career highlight, captaining the U.S. Ryder Cup team against the Great Britain and Ireland team led by Captain Brian Huggett at Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club. Led by Ryder Cup veterans Jack Nicklaus and Raymond Floyd and rookie team members Tom Watson and Lanny Wadkins, the Americans coasted to a five-point triumph. After his PGA TOUR playing career, Finsterwald enjoyed a busy PGA TOUR Champions schedule, seeing action in 189 career tournaments, including two in the Tour’s inaugural season of 1980. His best performance came in 1982, when he finished second to Don January at the Michelob Senior Classic in Tampa, Florida. Four years after his father’s induction into the Ohio University Athletics Hall of Fame, Finsterwald followed him for his golf exploits. In 2008, the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame also inducted him. Finsterwald is survived by three sons and a daughter. His wife, Linda, predeceased him in 2015. The couple’s middle son, Dow Finsterwald, Jr., was the long-time head pro at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, before retiring in 2021.

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