No. 5: Hideki Matsuyama

In a season devoid of a traditional rookie class, it's predictable that there will be lulls in attention for golfers who could crash the conversation for the potential to trigger voting for an Arnold Palmer Award winner. In fact, that Will Zalatoris already has achieved Special Temporary Membership is a bonus. Alas, there's no news out of The RSM Classic. The only non-member who made the cut was Bernd Wiesberger, and he finished T4, but the 35-year-old Austrian exhausted his rookie eligibility with 11 starts during the 2014-15 season. Only four others in the field of 156 at Sea Island still have rookie eligibility, but Michael Hebert now is a career 0-for-4 on the PGA TOUR, Brandon Crick is 0-for-2, PGA Georgia Section representative Anthony Cordes was making his TOUR debut, and Davis Thompson is an amateur. Of that smattering, the only golfer who presents as a strong possibility to contend for ROY at some point is Thompson, a 21-year-old senior at the University of Georgia. He was No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking at the start of the week of the RSM. In the latest update of the WAGR (in which Thompson slots second), Andy Ogletree rose to a career-best fourth. It's also where he finished his amateur days since he turned professional after finishing T34 at the Masters. Only professionals collect the equivalent of FedExCup points, so hejoins the play-for-pay ranks with zero. Elsewhere, Takumi Kanaya outlasted Tomohiro Ishizaka in a playoff to determine the winner of the Dunlop Phoenix in southern Japan. After trading a par and two birdies on the par-5 18th hole, Kanaya's birdie on the fourth time through secured the title. It was Kanaya's third start since turning professional, but it's already his second victory on the Japan Golf Tour. He's now 126th in the Official World Golf Ranking. Remarkably, both Kanaya and Ishizaka still are college students. Rafael Campos (only 2020-21 PGA TOUR rookie) Starts = 3 Cuts Made = 0 FedExCup Points = 0.000 FedExCup Rank = n/a Last Week = DNP Next = TBD ^ – The value beside Will Zalatoris reflects where he would rank among members with his total of equivalent FedExCup points. If he’s inside the top 125 at the conclusion of the Wyndham Championship, he’ll earn PGA TOUR membership in 2021-22. He can become a member this season with a victory on the PGA TOUR or with two more wins on the Korn Ferry Tour. Non-members: Through the 2020 RSM Classic * – Because the 2019-20 season was contracted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this season’s target for Special Temporary Membership is 288.035 FedExCup points. It’s what Martin Kaymer totaled en route to ranking 150th in the FedExCup during the 2018-19 season. Non-members who achieve STM receive numerous benefits, three of which are primary as it concerns opportunities to compete on the PGA TOUR: 1) Unlimited sponsor exemptions; 2) Unlimited starts; 3) Position in the Beyond 150 Reshuffle. However, a non-member who achieves STM remains ineligible for the FedExCup Playoffs unless he wins a tournament. NOTE: The Player Advisory Council and the Player Directors nominate annually a list of first-season PGA TOUR members for the PGA TOUR members for the PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year. A player's rookie season ("Rookie Year") is defined as the season in which he becomes a PGA TOUR member (including Special Temporary Members) and plays in 10 or more events as a member or finishes in the Top 125 on the official FedExCup points list or qualifies as a Top 125 non-member, whichever occurs first. Further, for purposes of this definition, a new member (including Special Temporary Members) shall not be eligible to be a rookie if he has previously played in more than seven official PGA TOUR money events as a professional in any prior season. PGA TOUR members who have played in at least 15 official money tournaments vote on this award. The Ryder Cup, Presidents Cup and Olympic Games each count as one the 15. In their discretion, the Player Advisory Council and Player Directors may determine that circumstances (the potential lack of nominees due to the absence of 2020 graduating class from the Korn Ferry Tour) may not warrant the selection of an award recipient in the 2020-21 season

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A 48-year-old Englishman is contending at Torrey Pines, but it may not be the one you expected. Lee Westwood finished third in the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines and has had a recent resurgence, highlighted by runners-up at THE PLAYERS and Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. RELATED: Full U.S. Open leaderboard | Bland’s breakthrough win on European Tour Westwood’s countryman, Richard Bland, was the one making waves Friday morning, however. He recently went viral, thanks to his emotional interview after winning his first European Tour title. The underdogs are one of the big stories at every U.S. Open, and especially here, where Rocco Mediate took Tiger Woods the distance 13 years ago. Now Bland is beautifully filling that role. Here are five things to know about the U.S. Open’s surprise contender: 1. Bland’s first European Tour win was a long time coming. His win at last month’s British Masters made him the oldest first-time winner in that circuit’s history. It came in his 478th start. Only Malcolm Mackenzie (509) had made more starts before winning his maiden European Tour title. Bland holed a 25-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole, then beat Italy’s Guido Migliozzi in a playoff. In a video call with his parents, Bland asked his mother if she was OK. “No!” she said through tears of joy. “I’ve waited for this so long. We’re absolutely proud of you.” Bland won the Challenge Tour Grand Final in 2001 to earn his European Tour card. He lost a playoff in the Irish Open in 2002, then had to wait 15 years for his next runner-up finish. He also finished second in last year’s Alfred Dunhill Championship. 2. He arrives at Torrey Pines on a bit of a hot streak. Bland was ranked 218th in the world entering the British Masters. He’s jumped more than 100 spots since. He followed his win with a third-place finish at the European Tour’s Made in HimmerLand. Those were his last two starts before arriving at Torrey Pines. He’s now 115th in the world ranking. He’s never ranked inside the world’s top 100 in his career, reaching a career best of 102nd in 2016. 3. This is just Richard Bland’s second PGA TOUR start in the United States. He missed the cut after shooting 77-70 in the 2009 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black. This is just the fourth major of Bland’s career, as well. He’s also played in two Open Championships, finishing T22 in 2017 and missing the cut in 1998. He was two shots off the lead after the opening round of the 2017 Open. 4. Bland had to return to the Challenge Tour, Europe’s version of the Korn Ferry Tour, as recently as 2019. “I said to my coach Tim Barter what am I going to do the next three or four years,” he wrote in a blog on EuropeanTour.com. “It was definitely a low point, but I always had that belief that I could still compete, and win, on the European Tour.” It was the fourth time that Bland graduated from the Challenge Tour. 5. Bland’s brother, Heath, was hospitalized in late 2017 with what he believed to be the flu. His heart stopped for a few seconds and he spent several weeks in a a medically-induced coma. “I would never, ever put what happened to my brother as the excuse for losing my card, but I wasn’t at the races for the first six months of that year. He was the priority, and rightly so, because his health would always be more important than whatever I achieved in golf,” Richard Bland wrote.

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The Wyndham Rewards Challenge takes place on Wednesday, Aug. 12 at 2 p.m. ET from Sedgefield Country Club. Charl Schwartzel and Branden Grace will team up against Pat Perez and Jason Kokrak. The teams will use the Chapman Format in the nine-hole exhibition. Each golfer hits a tee shot, and each plays the other’s ball for second shots. The best of the second shots is selected, and the two partners complete the hole playing alternate shot. The Wyndham Rewards Challenge will be worth $160,000 with all funds going to The First Tee of the Triad, central North Carolina’s chapter of the international organization, in the names of the participating golfers. Here’s how to follow the action HOW TO WATCH When: Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2 p.m. ET Where: Sedgefield CC (back nine) TV: Golf Channel Streaming: PGA TOUR LIVE and other PGA TOUR media platforms including GOLFTV powered by PGA TOUR to carry the event internationally.

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