Monday qualifiers: Barbasol Championship

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – Two days ago, Jhonattan Vegas and Brooks Koepka – a couple of heavyweights off the tee — joined in the unveiling of the PGA TOUR’s new state-of-the-art mobile fitness center. On Thursday, they spent 18 holes together flexing their muscles at The Honda Classic. Although Koepka is the reigning PGA TOUR Player of the Year, it was Vegas who held the upper hand after the first round at PGA National. His bogey-free 6-under 64 put him atop the leaderboard, while Koepka lurks after a 67. The third member of their group, Gary Woodland, also packs a punch off the tee but fell off the pace with a 2-over 72. None of the three actually had a particular eye-opening round in regards to driving distance average – Koepka’s average of 282.1 yards for all drives was the highest in the group – but they all seemed to end up in the same part of the fairway for most of the holes. “We were all three right there,â€� Vegas said when asked about his playing partners off the tee. “Every hole, we were literally right now to each other, which is good. Obviously Brooks has been playing phenomenal golf the last few years and Gary has been playing great golf. … It was easy to have the same flow.â€� Said Koepka: “It was nice. Anytime you’ve got a guy playing well, you kind of feed off it and kind of watch some putts go in, and it kind of feels like the hole is starting to open up. It was good to see him play well. It was nice to see some putts drop myself and kind of fee off that a little bit.” “But I’m not too concerned with what anyone else is doing.â€� Koepka, of course, won two majors last season, and then opened his 2018-19 season by winning THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES in Korea. Woodland has six top-10s in nine starts this season, including a runner-up at the Sentry Tournament of Champions. He’s the highest-ranked player in this week’s field in the FedExCup standings at No. 3. Koepka is 17th. Vegas’ season hasn’t been nearly as productive. In eight starts, he has just one top-10 earlier this month at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. He sandwiched a pair of missed cuts around that result and doesn’t have another finish inside the top 25. His putting has been the issue – he ranked T-190th in Strokes Gained: Putting this season – and so he changed putters recently and spent some extra time on the practice greens. On Thursday, he made four putts between 14 and 19 feet. It was his irons, however, that keyed Thursday’s round. He missed just three greens, and two of those misses were on the fringe, 15 feet from the hole. A year ago at The Honda Classic, Vegas signed for a 6-over 78 in the final round, his worst score in 22 previous rounds at this event. He finished at 14 over that week. “I was hitting my irons extremely bad Sunday of last year,â€� Vegas recalled. “Felt like I hit it everywhere. … Obviously I felt like I played well today, hit my irons the best I’ve hit them all year.â€� While Koepka, who lives in nearby Jupiter, had family members in his gallery – “It’s nice to play in front of the hometown,â€� he said — Vegas had at least one notable watching him play. Andres Galarraga, the retired baseball star nicknamed the Big Cat, is a fellow Venezuelan. The five-time All-Star hit 399 career homers and twice won the National League’s Silver Slugger award. “He’s been a good mentor, to be honest,â€� Vegas said. “He’s been good giving me support and everything through the years.â€�

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Here are nine tidbits from the final round of the Wells Fargo Championship that gamers can use next week, next year or down the road. Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte has been the host since the creation of the event in 2003 and plays 7,544 yards to a Par-71. The 2017 WFC was played at Eagle Point Golf Club in Wilmington, NC. Here are nine tidbits from the final round of the Wells Fargo Championship that gamers can use tomorrow, this weekend or down the road. Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte has been the host since the creation of the event in 2003 and plays 7,544 yards to a Par-71. The 2017 WFC was played at Eagle Point Golf Club in Wilmington, NC.  Beautiful Day Australian Jason Day became the fourth multiple winner on TOUR this season as he posted 12-under 272 to win the Wells Fargo Championship for the first time. His final-round 69 saw him hold off Aaron Wise and Nick Watney by two shots to collect his 12th PGA TOUR title. Day’s day was anything but easy, but he tends to make it look that way when he’s in the hunt. His two-shot lead was three at the turn before bogeys at Nos. 13 and 14 made for an interesting finish. Day cranked up the class and blasted a 380-yard drive on No. 16 that he turned into a birdie. If that wasn’t enough, he almost broke the flag on No. 17 at the base. His tee shot on the par-3 smashed into the flag and stopped three feet from the hole. His birdie sealed the tournament, as he played “The Green Mile” in 3 under for the week. Entering the week without a finish inside the top 20 since February, gamers had to trust his T9 experience at the 2017 PGA Championship would be enough. Day hasn’t played this event since 2012 when he finished T9. His wins at Torrey Pines and Quail Hollow Club shouldn’t be too much of a surprise as he hits it a mile and has a fantastic short game. He checked all of those boxes this week even though he admitted he had less than his best on Sunday. He led the field in putts per GIR and SG: Around-the-Green while checking in second in SG: Putting, scrambling and sand saves. He joins Lucas Glover as the only winner to place all four rounds in the 60’s. Gamers will only have to go back to 2016 to see how badly Day destroyed TPC Sawgrass. The changes after his victory slowed him to T60 last year but no player has ever defended that event. Ever. Those with regret can patiently wait until the PGA Championship or The TOUR Championship (among others) for a chance to use him. PGA TOUR Fantasy Game presented by SERVPRO top selections: What a difference a Day makes! Plenty of the names above feasted on the easier conditions on Saturday but regressed in the final round. The breeze was up and the sunshine was out so scores followed suit. Finau had the round of the day with a bogey-free 66, the only bogey-free round on Sunday. PGA TOUR One & Done presented by SERVPRO top selections: It’s a win-win for the Day supporters as their man won and the three horses-for-courses at Quail Hollow Club did not. I was waving my DeChambeau pompoms a bit more vigorously after he holed that 18-footer for birdie on the last to take solo fourth. One of the cheers was for DeChambeau and the other was hoping to catch McIlroy down the road when he turns it on again. Play All 72 Regular readers of this column will know that Nick Watney has now cashed in 11 consecutive events. His best result of that stretch of 10 straight was T20 the last time he played his own ball at the Valero Texas Open. He played in the final twosome and collected his best finish, T2, since he was solo second at AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in 2015. He beat Day by two shots that day. This week he needed a 58-foot putt on the last to drop to chop the runner-up cash. This was Watney’s third top-10 finish at QHC in the last five years so make a note for next year! Close Encounters Rookie Aaron Wise was tied with Day as he teed it up on No. 16. There’s no shame in making three pars to close on “The Green Mile” and that’s exactly what he did. He played his final 16 holes on Sunday in 4 under after bogeying the second hole. The former NCAA champion from Oregon picks up his best finish as a pro and sits inside the top 50 in the FedExCup standings at No. 49.  Bank on Lefty His worst 36-hole total (+2) in 14 appearances probably scared most of his investors to death. His 64-69 weekend saw Phil Mickelson claim another top 10 in Charlotte, the 10th of his illustrious career. Don’t fall into the trap of following him on to TPC Sawgrass, though. His recent record there is dire and his last top 10 was his win in 2007. The Landlord The only two-time champion at this event struggled to find anything in his game this week. Rory McIlroy’s T16 payday is his worst check he’s collected here in eight tries. Even his “bad” is good but he’s forced gamers to set the bar ridiculously high and I understand the frustration. I don’t think next week is time to break him out if he’s struggling across the board. Sunday Silence I don’t think many expected Peter Uihlein to back up his 62 with something tasty on Sunday. He didn’t, but his 71 only dropped him three spots to T5 to match his best finish of the season. … There have been two players over the years that cause gamers to bite their nails on Sunday: Paul Casey and Rickie Fowler. Casey bogeyed the last to fall into a share of T5 while Fowler finished double bogey-bogey to drop all the way to T21. … Peter Malnati held the 36-hole lead alone before 75-74 on the weekend saw him eventually land at T34. … Tiger Woods didn’t make a birdie on Sunday and ended up T55. Study Hall Sunday’s scoring average jumped to 71.973 from 70.368 as QHC played almost 100 yards longer than Saturday. The scoring average for the week was 72.132. … Wise and fellow top-10 finishers Charl Schwartzel (T9) and Sam Saunders (T9) led the field with 19 birdies for the week. … Emiliano Grillo bogeyed his last two holes to collect T9 money. That’s 13 straight paychecks this season when playing his own ball. 

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JACKSON, Miss. – Tom Hoge couldn’t keep pace with Joaquin Niemann over the final holes of last week’s A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier, but now Hoge finds himself atop the leaderboard in the second event of the PGA TOUR season. Hoge, who finished second to Niemann on Sunday, shot a bogey-free 64 on Thursday to lead the weather-delayed Sanderson Farms Championship. Hoge temporarily tied Niemann at The Greenbrier’s Old White TPC after making birdie on the 12th hole. Hoge bogeyed on two of his next three holes, though, and Niemann made six back-nine birdies to win by six strokes. Related: Leaderboard | Johnson takes advantage of ‘opportunity’ Hoge finished alone in second to earn 300 FedExCup points. It was his best finish in 134 career PGA TOUR starts. Hoge couldn’t have capped off Thursday’s round in better fashion, holing a 45-footer for birdie to shoot a bogey-free 64. Hoge, 30, shot 68-65-67-65 last week. He has a 65.8 scoring average in five rounds this season. Hoge’s hot start to the 2019-20 season came just weeks after he had to regain his card at the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. Now he could have his card locked up before October, and possibly his first PGA TOUR victory. “Just a great opportunity for a guy like me to go out and have a great week and change my life,â€� he said. Hoge credited strong driving and putting to his good play in the first two events of the season. He gained more than four strokes on the greens Thursday. In addition to his long putt on the final hole, he made three of his five attempts from 10-15 feet. Hoge has made 21 of 25 (84%) putts from 5-10 feet this season. He ranked 161st in that category last season, making 53% from that distance. He’s missed just one of the 14 putts he’s faced from 5-7 feet this season. This is Hoge’s sixth PGA TOUR season. He’s qualified for the FedExCup Playoffs just once, finishing 92nd in 2018. He dropped to 159th in the standings last season. His game has been trending in the right direction, though. Hoge finished sixth in the Barracuda Championship, then T7 and T20 in his two starts in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. He knows the importance of getting his season off to a strong start. Two seasons ago, he had two top-10s in his first six starts. He’s off to a similarly hot start this season. “There was so much pressure there for a few weeks to play well and get back out here on the PGA TOUR,â€� Hoge said. “Once you get that done, it frees you up a little bit. At the same time, you know you played well, so just kind of keep it rolling.â€�

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