OnScene: Curry impresses, doesn’t make the cut

For the 12th-consecutive, and final, season, the FedEx St. Jude Classic will serve as the final tune-up for the U.S. Open this week at TPC Southwind. Next season, the TOUR will return to Memphis but FESJC will be a FedExCup Playoffs event on the new calendar. There is plenty to play for this week as the winner, if not already exempt, will punch a ticket to Shinnecock Hills if this victory pushes him into the OWGR top 60. If that’s not the case I bet the $1.188 million and 500 FedExCup points the winner receives will provide an excellent consolation prize. Memphis has been the site for 60 previous editions and TPC Southwind will play host for the 18th-consecutive season. Playing to a Par-70 at 7,244 yards, the pros will be reintroduced to Champion Bermuda for the first time since Quail Hollow Club in early May. Since a 2004 renovation, TPC Southwind has annually ranked easily inside of the top 15 most difficult courses on TOUR. The last two winners on TOUR who did NOT make a birdie in the final round have both come from this event. Justin Leonard (2005) and Ben Crane (2014) found a way to get the ball in the hole and the tournament trophy on the shelf by surviving on Sunday. I’d suggest having a big lead if that’s the strategy this week! The challenging layout hasn’t seemed to bother two-time reigning champion Daniel Berger. He’s won both times he’s played this event and will look to join an exclusive club of players who have won a TOUR event in three consecutive seasons. He can get some advice from Steve Stricker, who is in the field this week, as he was the last person to complete this feat at the John Deere Classic from 2009-11. Berger joins Leonard as the only players to win this event twice since the 2004 renovation. Berger became just the second player this century to defend and the only player to do so after the 2004 renovation. He used a very similar winning formula to his maiden victory in 2016, as shown above, but his route to the title this time around was significantly different. Beginning in Round 2 he was seven shots back of a trio of leaders on 9-under-par before playing the final two rounds in 8-under to win by one. His 8-under was the co-low total from the weekend and was only matched by Ole Miss junior Braden Thornberry (a), who finished T4. Interestingly enough, those two players had the only two bogey-free rounds in the final round. Berger’s winning total of 270 (-10) was just the 10th double-figure total in the last five years and included 19 birdies against nine bogeys. The course record of 62, set by Woody Austin in 2007, was safe as 64 was the lowest round of the week. Brian Gay’s tournament record of 262 obviously wasn’t sniffed. Gay won by five shots that year and is in the field again this week. Becoming the third first-time TOUR winner in the last four years, Berger played like a season veteran even though he was the second-youngest winner since 1968. His lead was three shots after 36 and 54 holes and his winning total of 13-under 267 was also three better than the pile of studs at T2, Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker and Brooks Koepka, who all signed for 270. Not even a closing-round 63 from Dustin Johnson (5th) could rattle the 2015 Rookie of the Year. Neither would a three-hour rain delay that same afternoon. Playing with his first 54-hole lead and from his first final pairing, gamers saw his class as he fought off those big names and some less-than-perfect conditions. They say the first one is always the toughest and I don’t think I’m going to argue! He didn’t have any pressure to win to qualify for the U.S. Open as he was already inside the OWGR top 50. Of the previous 58 events, only four international players had waltzed into the winner’s circle to claim the biggest prize. Fabian Gomez made it five in 59 as the Argentine posted all four rounds in red figures to sign for 13-under 267 and win by four shots. After Koepka co-led the first round and was one shot alone after 36, Gomez kicked it into gear with 67-66 to win for the first time on TOUR. Koepka’s weekend of 71-70 saw him share third with Mickelson, five shots adrift. Gomez began the week ranked No. 288 in the OWGR so his victory did not qualify him for the U.S. Open the following week. If you’re looking for a first-time TOUR winner, three of the last five (Harris English, Gomez and Berger) have done just that. If you’re looking for a first-timer at the event, I won’t talk you out of that angle this week either as four of the last seven winners (Lee Westwood, Johnson, English and Berger) had never played here before. NOTE: Golfers inside the top 50 in each statistic on the 2017-18 PGA TOUR are listed only if they are scheduled to compete this week. * – Finished inside the top 10 since 2010 or is a former winner. SG: Tee to Green Rank  Golfer  1  *Dustin Johnson  3  Luke List 12 Henrik Stenson 14 Byeong-Hun An 17 Scott Piercy 18 Tony Finau 27 *Kevin Chappell 35 Chris Kirk 37 *Charles Howell III 39 *Chez Reavie 45 *Phil Mickelson 46 J.B. Holmes 50 *Daniel Berger Greens in Regulation Rank  Golfer  1  Henrik Stenson  8  Sam Ryder 10 C.T. Pan 14 Scott Piercy 15 Andrew Putnam 17 *Dustin Johnson 22 *Charles Howell 23 Cameron Percy 31 *Chez Reavie 33 Tony Finau 34 *Michael Thompson 35 Brett Stegmaier 37 Peter Uihlein 40 Byeong-Hun An 42 *Stewart Cink 45 Bronson Burgoon 46 *James Hahn 47 *Matt Jones 49 *Daniel Berger 50 Nate Lashley SG: Off the Tee Rank  Golfer  1  *Dustin Johnson  3  Keith Mitchell  4  Luke List 10 Byeong-Hun An 11 *Kevin Chappell 16 Tom Lovelady 19 Henrik Stenson 20 Hunter Mahan 21 Trey Mullinax 24 *Ryan Palmer 29 *Billy Horschel 33 J.B. Holmes 36 Tony Finau 38 Charles Howell III 39 Corey Conners 40 J.T. Poston 41 Grayson Murray 44 *Chez Reavie 46 *Matt Jones 48 Kiradech Aphibarnrat 49 Sam Saunders Par-5 Scoring Rank  Golfer  1  Kevin Tway  2  Luke List  4  Tony Finau 12 Austin Cook 13 Tom Hoge 14 Chris Kirk 16 Keith Mitchell 20 Brice Garnett 26 *Phil Mickelson 27 Tyrone Van Aswegen 29 Corey Conners 35 C.T. Pan 35 Peter Uihlein 35 *Harris English 38 *Brian Gay 42 Vaughn Taylor 42 Harold Varner III 45 *James Hahn 45 Ben Silverman 50 *Dustin Johnson From 1990 to 2004 TPC Southwind was over ran by bushels of birdies and played as one of the easiest courses on TOUR. The renovation after the 2004 edition changed the direction 180 degrees. The track has rated inside the top five courses in relation to par in the last 12 years with only Augusta National, PGA National, Torrey Pines (South) and The Oaks Course at TPC San Antonio claiming that honor. Throw out Gay’s record-setting total in 2009 when he was on absolute fire and the winning score has not exceeded 13-under during the new phase. The course record has also stood since 2007 so there’s nothing easy about this joint. If the test here is to replicate the U.S. Open to a degree I don’t think many will argue. Ron Prichard’s design only possesses two Par-5 holes but players will need to take advantage to wipe squares off their cards. His Zoysia fairways are usually canted in the opposite direction of the dogleg so only proper shots are rewarded. Tee balls that are loose will end up in three inches of Bermuda rough making recovery shots difficult. With 94 bunkers and 10 water hazards lurking every shot has to be given proper attention. Since 2003 no course (sorry TPC Sawgrass) has claimed as many water balls as TPC Southwind, with Nos. 12 and 18 leading the way. In the last five years there have only been 10 players reach double-digits under par and half have won the event so the level of difficulty reflects in scoring. It also doesn’t help scoring when the temperatures are in the 90’s and the humidity is off the charts. The mental and physical test will both be tough this week. There is good news though! The Champion Bermuda greens are usually in perfect shape and roll true up to 12 feet on the Stimpmeter. And since this isn’t the U.S. Open the pros will get a reprieve greenside if they keep the ball out of the water. TPC Southwind has chalked up the most hole-outs from off the green on TOUR in recent memory and also sits in the top five of easiest courses to get up-and-down. With green sizes averaging just 5,420 square feet most approach shots finding the putting surface will have a good chance at making par. It’s a difficult track but it’s not hard as evidenced by the recent “new” winners and pros who have won on their first try playing the course in tournament form. This tells me that the greens are stock and not the challenge this week; finding the fairways and the greens will be. The last four winning totals have been either 13 or 10-under par but no players, winner or otherwise, have posted more than 21 birdies for the week. Par is a very solid score this week and it’s obvious a few bogeys will also pop up. This will be the sixth consecutive year that Mickelson uses TPC Southwind for his U.S. Open prep. Last year he finished ninth, six shots back, with a card that included two doubles and a triple. There’s a lesson in there folks! Rob Bolton’s Power Rankings will give you more juice for the week so make sure you stop by. It’s also who I trust with the weather each week so pay attention!  NOTE: The groups below are comprehensive to assist in data mining. Inclusion doesn’t imply automatic endorsement in every fantasy game as all decisions are specific to your situation.  

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA – The PGA TOUR announced that PGA TOUR AR, an augmented reality (AR) app that rolled out in 2018, will add a “360° Tee Box presented by AT&T� experience on holes No. 1 and 18 on Pebble Beach Golf Links at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. The experience will bring live AR and 360° tournament coverage to life for fans in the United States on their Apple device. The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am will also showcase live featured hole AR coverage on the PGA TOUR AR app from holes 1, 7 and 18 at Pebble Beach Golf Links. The AR experience will begin in conjunction with the opening round of the tournament on Thursday, February 7. The PGA TOUR AR app is available for free, exclusively in the App Store. After selecting the 360° Tee Box within the app, fans will be directed to scan the floor and tap to start the experience. Once they tap to start, an AR green with the Pebble Beach flag will appear and direct fans to walk toward the green. Once fans walk onto the virtual green, the 360° video from either the 1st or 18th tee box will appear, and they can move their phones around to view the video. The experience will go live one hour before the first tee time Thursday-Sunday at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. “The AT&T 360° Tee Box in the PGA TOUR AR app offers fans a unique and exclusive view of Pebble Beach Golf Links,� said Devon Fox, PGA TOUR Director, Digital Platform Innovation. “Fans will be able to see holes No. 1 and 18 in an entirely new way, getting them closer to the action than ever before. Collaborating with AT&T to bring fans this exclusive experience represents a new way for the TOUR to add value for sponsors and partners in the future.� PGA TOUR AR allows fans to interact with 3D featured holes and live 3D shot trails on any flat surface right in front of them. On featured holes throughout the season, fans will be able to select their favorite player on the golf course, compare shot trails from each round and compare the shots of different players. The 360° Tee Box presented by AT&T experience will only be available for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am from February 7-10. The PGA TOUR AR app is available on iPhone 7 and above and iOS 11.3 and above and on iPad Pro. The “360° Tee Box presented by AT&T� experience will only be visible to users on the iPhone/iOS versions listed above. The 360° Tee Box experience was developed jointly by the PGA TOUR, AT&T, The Marketing Arm and Trigger Global. The development of the PGA TOUR AR app in collaboration with POSSIBLE Mobile, part of the creative agency POSSIBLE, was aided by existing data gathered by ShotLink powered by CDW, the TOUR’s longstanding state-of-the-art scoring system. ShotLink through CDW technology captures and reports real-time vital information on every shot, by every player, during tournament competition. Every shot is translated into thousands of statistics, changing the way fans watch – and now interact with – the PGA TOUR, bringing them closer to the action. ShotLink and CDW’s vision is to turn data into information, information into knowledge, and knowledge into entertainment. The upgraded PGA TOUR AR app was built using the latest versions of ARKit and Unity to provide fans with faster, more accurate surface detection and the ability to choose where they want to place the models.

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DALLAS – It was mid-February and T.J. Vogel was about to reach his breaking point. Money was so tight that he had stopped looking at his bank account. He didn’t want to know how little he had left. The previous summer, Vogel had made the cut in all 12 of his starts on PGA TOUR Canada-Mackenzie Tour, but the $42,373 in Canadian currency (approximately $33,000 U.S.) was now drying up. In the fall, he Monday qualified for The RSM Classic, making a birdie on his last hole to avoid a risky playoff. But did not make the cut, so no paycheck. With just conditional status on the Web.com Tour, he had made the go-or-be-broke decision to chase his PGA TOUR dream as a Monday qualifier. Now the dream was on life support. “I didn’t know how much longer I would’ve been able to play,â€� Vogel said. “I’m spending money but no money’s coming in. It gets real low. What am I going to do? How am I going to survive?â€� The next week, he Monday qualified for The Honda Classic as the medalist, shooting a 64. Again, he didn’t make the cut. But the confidence booster he received by playing his way into the field was worth something. He could build on that. Two weeks later, he was again the Monday qualifier medalist, shooting a 63 to make the field at the Valspar Championship. This time, he made the cut by two strokes, followed by a pair of 2-under 69s on the weekend to finish tied for 16th. Money earned: $77,295.84. Finally, he could look at his bank account again. “That’s freed me up to know that I’m going to have a few more months of going for it,â€� said the 27-year-old Vogel, who grew up in Florida but now lives in Los Angeles. “Last place on the PGA TOUR if you make the cut is like $13,000 or $14,000. That could fund me for four months. That top 20 at Valspar funds me for a year.â€� Money in the bank hasn’t changed his status, though. Monday qualifying remains his avenue into TOUR events — and now he’s building a reputation as a Monday king. He qualified at the Wells Fargo Championship, making a late eagle to secure his status, and then made the cut by a stroke. His T-59 finish was worth $16,863. And this Monday, he shot a 6-under 66 to Monday qualify for the AT&T Byron Nelson. That’s five successful times he’s Monday qualified, by far the most of any player. One more and he ties the 2012 mark of Patrick Reed, who Monday qualified six times that season and earned the reputation as Mr. Monday. Six years later, Reed earned another title: Masters champ. “It’s very cool to be able to qualify for an event and be able to play at this level,â€� said Vogel, who has one Masters appearance himself – in 2013 by virtue of winning the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship. “What he did was pretty amazing. Obviously that’s something that I’m striving for. My No. 1 goal is to try to get into the Web Finals through FedExCup and play for my card that way.â€� As a non-member, Vogel is not officially listed in the points standings, but if he earns enough points to place him between the 126 and 200 margin in FedExCup points, he would get a spot in the Web.com Tour finals. A year ago, the 200th player had 82 points; Vogel currently has 47. Asked why he didn’t try to play his way in via Web.com qualifiers, Vogel offered a unique perspective. “It might even be easier to qualify for this [PGA] TOUR simply because the courses that the PGA TOUR sets the qualifiers up, they’re more difficult and sometimes they’re not a full-field – whereas the Web, since there’s no pre-qualifier, you have two full fields for six spots each and the courses aren’t as tough. “So I feel like if you take a lot of the numbers, a lot of the Web qualifiers, you have to shoot 8 under. That was a playoff last week in Knoxville, whereas I shot 6 [under] this week and I’m in, no playoff. “I see that happening a lot, so I’m like, why wouldn’t I just try to go for the PGA ones where you can be rewarded for shooting a 5 or 6 or 7 [under] and get in? Just made more sense.â€� Yet, that also puts Vogel in a do-or-die scenario each time he tries to Monday qualify against stronger golfers. Playing with his back against the wall, he said, is actually a good thing. It motivates him, keeps him aggressive. Keeps him hungry. Plus, the more times he does it, the more his confidence is raised – and the more opportunities he can get to have a Valspar-kind of week. “I’m more motivated because I got a taste of this,â€� he said. “This is everybody’s dream to play this TOUR. Got a taste and it’s super-motivating. I want to keep playing and it’s what I’ve dreamed my whole life. “I’m not here yet; I’ve got to earn it. But it’s nice to have these experiences to get even better.â€� He remains humbled, though – and frugal. This week, he’s staying with a friend, so no money spent on hotel rooms. He splits rental car costs with other players (until he makes the field; then he gets a courtesy car). He takes the cheapest flights he can find. “I’m still Pricelining stuff,â€� Vogel said. “Until you get out here [as a PGA TOUR member], you can’t really afford to be living big. I don’t have that luxury – yet.â€� But he has the dream. And now he has the magic touch, at least on Mondays. How far will it take him? Well, there are no other options right now. “To be honest, I didn’t really set up my life in a way, where, what else am I going to do?â€� he said. “This is something I want to do my whole life. It’s more of me now seeing that I belong out here.â€� If Mondays are any indication, there are no doubts. The other days of the week are starting to look pretty good, too.

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