Monday qualifiers: The Honda Classic

When Justin Rose captured the FedExCup in 2018, he became the first champion without a victory in the same Playoffs. That possibility no longer exists with the revised format of the TOUR Championship. The winner of this week’s TOUR Championship is the FedExCup champion. It’s that simple. What requires a moment to understand is why all 30 in the field aren’t starting the tournament at even par like usual. So, scroll past the ranking for an explanation on the format, other wrinkles of the tournament and more. NOTE: This full-field Power Rankings includes starting score for every golfer in the field. POWER RANKINGS: TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP The 13th TOUR Championship of the FedExCup era is unlike every other. The FedExCup Starting Strokes scoring system segregates the field by FedExCup ranking upon arrival. As the top seed, BMW Championship winner Justin Thomas begins the 72-hole competition at East Lake at 10-under. Patrick Cantlay, the 2-seed, opens at 8-under. The cascade effect continues all the way down to those seeded 26-30, who start traditionally at even par. While there likely will be curiosity for who actually scores best, the starting leaderboard will reflect official position. If it helps understand it at first, think of the opening round as if at least one round was already played and you’re viewing the continuation of the same tournament. There is no cut, so all qualifiers are guaranteed 72 holes. The winner of the TOUR Championship will be credited with an official victory, but the earnings will be bonus in nature only. The champ will receive $15 million, the runner-up $5 million, and so on down to $395,000 for 30th place. So, there is no stand-alone purse with official money for the field. The BMW represented the last tournament of the 2018-19 season with official earnings. The FedExCup Starting Strokes scoring system could be responsible for the end of a nine-year drought during which the top seed entering the TOUR Championship has failed to win the FedExCup. Five of the last six FedExCup champions arrived as the 2-seed, including defending champ Justin Rose. No golfer ever has won consecutive FedExCups. Only Tiger Woods (2007, 2009) has captured multiple titles. This year’s field is populated by seven golfers who started the three-event Playoffs outside the top 30 in FedExCup points. The lowest opening seed to qualify is Abraham Ancer. He started THE NORTHERN TRUST seeded 67th and parlayed it with a runner-up finish at Liberty National into debuts in the TOUR Championship and the Presidents Cup. Ancer, who is now seeded 10th, also is one of four PGA TOUR non-winners in the field. Tommy Fleetwood (22nd), rookie Sungjae Im (24th) and Jason Kokrak (30th) are the others. The highest opening seed who failed to advance to East Lake was Shane Lowry. He started 20th and finished 33rd after going a respective T52-T48 in the first two events. He withdrew early from a pair of commitments late in the regular season, but, and of course, his consolation prize is the claret jug. Not too shabby. After two weeks of tackling migrating host tracks, the field lands at the only site used for the TOUR Championship in Playoffs history. All but four – Ancer, Im, Kokrak and Corey Conners – have pegged it at the consistently firm and fair test of East Lake in Atlanta. The stock par 70 tips at 7,346 yards. This is the fourth year since the nines were reversed so that the tournament concludes on a par 5 instead of a par 3. Last year’s field averaged 69.617, which hit the bull’s-eye of the expectation when you consider the setup and the quality of the competition. As the longest of the par 70s in non-majors, smashing drivers is encouraged and capitalizing on the pair of par 5s is all but a prerequisite to contend. While always vulnerable, Nos. 5 and 18 surrendered a scoring average of just 4.43 last year. That’s lowest in the FedExCup era since the inaugural of 2007 and fourth-easiest of 51 courses last season. With FedExCup Starting Strokes now in play, the premium of converting eagles and birdies on the eight times through these holes is more valuable than ever. Overall, like all worthy courses, the test toughens nearer the green. Hitting the averaged-sized greens in regulation 11 or 12 times per round is keeping up with the joneses even in the tiniest field of the season. Putting on what might be the fastest surfaces groomed by the PGA TOUR multiplies the challenge. The MiniVerde bermudagrass greens could roll up to 13 feet on the Stimpmeter. That said, top speeds are unlikely with the persistent threat and likely reality of rain throughout the week. As a result, scoring will favor the aggressive, which only will make it more difficult for those starting at the bottom of the leaderboard to gain ground. Warm and humid air won’t be impacted much by light winds, either. In addition to the richest prize in the history of the PGA TOUR, the FedExCup champion also will receive a three-year membership exemption. By qualifying for the tournament, all 30 in the field are exempt into the Masters, the U.S. Open and The Open Championship, as well as the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions and WGC-Mexico Championship next season. ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE PGATOUR.COM’s Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton recaps and previews every tournament from numerous angles. Look for his following contributions as scheduled. MONDAY: Rookie Ranking, Reshuffle, Power Rankings TUESDAY*: Fantasy Insider WEDNESDAY: One & Done * – Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, which also publishes on Tuesday.

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Two weeks after losing a two-shot lead, Mel Reid finished strong Sunday to win the ShopRite LPGA Classic for her first LPGA Tour title.

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NASSAU, Bahamas – What’s old is new again. At the risk of succumbing to pre-pandemic nostalgia, next year could recall the golden days of 2019. Brooks Koepka and Rory McIlroy, who dominated – Koepka won PGA of America Player of the Year, McIlroy PGA TOUR POY – are showing glimpses of their old form. “I worked my tail off over the last two months and I see the light at the end of the tunnel,” said Koepka, who shot a second-round 67 to reach 10 under, one behind Bryson DeChambeau (64) halfway through the Hero World Challenge at Albany Golf Club. McIlroy, who won in his only official TOUR start in the fall (THE CJ CUP @ SUMMIT), and who shot a 71 and is four back, is playing so well he said he wished it was March. He’s swinging too well, he added, to risk mothballing the clubs for an extended period over Christmas. Both players are former world No. 1s, four-time major winners, and in their early 30s. (Koepka is 31, McIlroy 32.) What brought them down to earth, though, was not any one thing. Koepka was slowed by leg and hip injuries and missed parts of the last two seasons. He qualified for but did not play in the 2019 Presidents Cup, missed THE PLAYERS Championship last season, and admits his results were generally lacking. And frustrating. “Not good enough for me,” he said. On the plus side, he won the Waste Management Phoenix Open last season, and beat Bryson DeChambeau in The Match in Las Vegas last week. Koepka also loves what he’s seen so far from his Cleveland Golf and Srixon gear, especially the ball. He will go into holiday mode after the Hero, to return at the Sentry Tournament of Champions in Maui in January. When will he go from very close to totally back? “If I wasn’t going on a family vacation,” he said, “putting the clubs away next week, I think by the end of next week I’d have it.” With his health and his game returning, it’s not unreasonable to wonder if he’s about to turn back the clock to ’19, when he successfully defended his PGA Championship title among three total wins; was runner-up at the Masters and U.S. Open; racked up nine top-10s; and led the Comcast Business TOUR TOP 10 as the regular-season FedExCup points leader. Could he get back to peak Brooks Koepka, circa 2018 and ’19? “That wasn’t peak,” he said. “Just wait.” McIlroy’s swoon was more his own doing. Noting the way DeChambeau was mauling courses, especially at the U.S. Open at Winged Foot, the Northern Irishman went on a quest to find more distance. He also changed coaches. Alas, neither move paid dividends. Although McIlroy won the Wells Fargo Championship in the spring, the first time he’d won the same TOUR event three times, he battled inconsistency. It all reached a crescendo in a deflating Ryder Cup performance that left McIlroy in tears as the European side got flattened by the Americans. Regrouping, McIlroy went back to his coach since boyhood, Michael Bannon, and the things that had made him great. The results followed as he captured THE CJ CUP, becoming the 39th player to reach 20 wins on TOUR. He had one hand on the trophy at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai before a bad break – his approach shot clanking off the pin and into a bunker at the 15th hole – sent him into a tailspin. He signed for a 74 (T6) and ripped his shirt in frustration. Golf has an uncanny way of presenting players with the same situation that just got the better of them, and McIlroy got another chance to lose his cool as he doubled the 9th hole Thursday. Instead of folding, though, he rallied, playing the back nine in 5 under par. “I really turned a corner after the Ryder Cup,” he said. Now he wants to find the consistency that defined his game in ’19, when his TOUR-leading 14 top-10 finishes in 19 starts, and three victories – including THE PLAYERS and TOUR Championship – yielded his second FedExCup title. He also won the Byron Nelson Award for adjusted scoring average (69.057) for the third time in his career. “Just being me is good enough,” he said at THE CJ CUP, “and maybe the last few months I was trying – not to be someone else, but maybe trying to add things to my game or take things away from my game. I know that when I do the things that I do well, this is what I’m capable of. “I’m capable of winning a lot of events on the PGA TOUR,” he continued, “and being the best player in the world.” Koepka could say the same. The way things are going at the Hero and elsewhere, and given the growing confidence of both players, it may not be long before one of the headliners from 2019 has climbed back to the top of the ziggurat. Then again, if recent history is any indication, it could be both.

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