Owen leads Barracuda Championship after 54 holes

The old saying goes, “Never doubt a champion.” And Rory McIlroy is certainly a great champion. McIlroy can now add THE PLAYERS Championship before the descriptor, and it is very much deserved. Welcome to the Monday Finish where McIlroy proved he has been telling the truth all year. He really was pleased with his play and believed he was trending towards something big. Winning THE PLAYERS at TPC Sawgrass is certainly huge. FIVE OBSERVATIONS 1. Rory McIlroy is stronger than a lot of people want to admit sometimes. Now look, we are not ignoring the fact that in the last nine times McIlroy has played in a final group in the last round of a tournament he has failed to win. This is a fair narrative for golf pundits to highlight. And it will remain a while longer given McIlroy was not in the final group on Sunday at TPC Sawgrass. But what Sunday’s one-shot win did prove is McIlroy can handle the heat. Not just the heat of an incredible number of challengers that emerged on a wild Sunday, but also the heat of the spoken and written word engulfing the now 15-time PGA TOUR winner over the last 12 months since his previous win at the 2018 Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. McIlroy has an incredible resume. Amongst it are THE PLAYERS trophy, a FedExCup, an Open Championship, a U.S. Open, two PGA Championships and two World Golf Championships – all before he’s 30. However you slice it, it is impressive. Could he have won more? Sure. But you can say that about almost every golfer out here. Read more about McIlroy’s incredible triumph here. 2. Furyk might just have some new tricks left. Jim Furyk was one of the last guys into THE PLAYERS Championship. A local at Ponte Vedra Beach, the 48-year-old was certainly grateful to be part of the field, his spot only secured with a recent top-10 finish at The Honda Classic. His performance over the four days was once again an advertisement that experience can certainly help on the PGA TOUR. With the like of Davis Love III, Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh all showing competitiveness heading towards and into their 50s. His runner-up finish, which included some great shots down the stretch showed the nerves of the old guys can still stand up when it counts. The result catapulted him into the World Golf Championships–Dell Technologies Match Play field and gives him a chance to push towards a Masters berth. Read more about Furyk’s awesome and emotional week here. 3. Rahm runs hot. Joh Rahm continues to be a fascinating case study. The Spanish star is full of emotion and flair. It is part of what makes him such a special talent. But on course outbursts were causing some to question his temperament. The 54-hole leader talked about how he was so proud of himself for keeping a lid on his emotions over the early stages of the tournament but in Sunday’s final round Rahm once again found himself bubbling over at times. It was almost as if it all finally came to the surface. A critical play came on the par-5 11th where he defied caddy advice to lay up and instead hit the ball in the water going for the green. At the end of the day he signed for a 76 and dropped well back. And so the debate continues. The management of emotion is certainly important on the golf course but is the focus on it helping or hurting a natural talent like Rahm? It’s going to be fascinating viewing going forward. 4. Fleetwood is not far away. England’s Tommy Fleetwood will win on the PGA TOUR soon. A lot is made out of the fact Fleetwood has yet to win a PGA TOUR event. But what is sometimes understated is he already has four European Tour titles and also claimed the 2017 Race to Dubai. In his last two starts at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard and THE PLAYERS Championship he has had chances to win only to settle for a top-5 finish. Already some are suggesting he’s struggling to close the deal when it counts. That’s ludicrous. When he appeared out of it at TPC Sawgrass on Sunday he hit a stunning shot into 16 to make eagle. And then knowing he needed birdie on 17 he took dead aim. His ball found the railway ties and bounced in the water. I don’t call that letting it slip, I call that a brave finish. Just like McIlroy trended heavily towards victory this season before winning, Fleetwood will do the same. 5. The move to March is a success. It’s a small sample size for sure but the move back to March certainly provided an exciting PLAYERS. There was concern the move would suit the bombers more than most – and yes McIlroy won and Dustin Johnson had his first top-10 in 11 tries – but Furyk proved TPC Sawgrass can provide any type of winner. You have to drive the ball well and you have to hit your irons well. You don’t have to be the best putter, but you still need to roll the rock. On Sunday throughout the final round there were 15 different players who had a legitimate stake in the championship. The twists and turns were incredible. The excitement and drama THE PLAYERS throws up certainly makes it a great start to the season of championships. See more on the final round here. And more on the move to March here. FIVE INSIGHTS 1. McIlroy now has 15 PGA TOUR titles in 156 starts at age 29 years, 10 months, 14 days. He moves to No. 1 in the FedExCup standings. 2. McIlroy is just the third player – with Tiger Woods and Henrik Stenson – to have won at least one FedExCup, THE PLAYERS Championship, major championship and World Golf Championship. 3. The win was McIlroy’s sixth consecutive top-10 on the PGA TOUR, which bests his previous streak of five in 2015: THE PLAYERS Championship (win), Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard (T6), WGC-Mexico Championship (2), Genesis Open (T4), Farmers Insurance Open (T5), Sentry Tournament of Championship (T4) 4. McIlroy led the field in par-3 scoring average (2.69, ) and Strokes Gained: Tee to Green (13.262). Finished second in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee (5.309) behind only Fleetwood. 5. Jhonattan Vegas’ birdie putt from 69-feet, 7-inches is the longest recorded made putt on the famous par-3 17th Island Green. Official records began in 2003. WYNDHAM REWARDS The Wyndham Rewards Top 10 is in its first season and adds another layer of excitement to the FedExCup Regular Season. The top 10 players at the end of the FedExCup Regular Season will earn bonus payouts from the Wyndham Rewards Top 10. McIlroy stormed all the way from outside the top 10 to the No. 1 slot with his victory.

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PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – This week, it’s the amateur portion of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Next month, it’s a sponsor exemption, making him one of the 132 competitors at the first-year PGA TOUR event, the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship. And then? Difficult to say right now. At age 37, Tony Romo is a retired NFL quarterback, just finished his first year as lead analyst on CBS and is arguably the most accomplished golfer as any amateur in the field this week at Pebble Beach. More important, for the first time in his life, he has the time, the health and the desire to make golf a daily part of his life. So maybe he gets more invites into TOUR events. Maybe he sees progress. Maybe the competitive juices flow just like they did when he quarterbacked the Dallas Cowboys. And maybe one day, he chases membership onto a professional tour. Consider this: Romo has 13 years to fine-tune his game for the PGA TOUR Champions. He could follow the same path as another former NFL quarterback, John Brodie, who retired from the NFL at age 35 and eventually became a Champions member once he turned 50, even winning one event. When asked if Romo might have pro golf aspirations, his good friend and practice partner Jordan Spieth said he could see it happening. “He loves golf so much,â€� Spieth said. “He’s going to practice it all the time. That’s all he’s been doing. Yeah, I think that’s not out of the realm at all.â€� Romo, of course, is not about to disclose such lofty intentions. He’s just grateful for the opportunity to play next month’s event in the Dominican Republic. The news of the sponsor exemption was made public on Wednesday, so let’s just digest that for now. Even so, he wasn’t dismissing the idea. “Well, you got to go play,â€� Romo said. “You never know how good you are until you go play and perform. Ultimately, obviously the odds going against these guys are not great. I think we all know that. “But I think that’s what makes it really fun and enjoyable. I also think that the challenge that’s presented is what a competitor really wants. I think that’s what you always want to be around or be a part of. I know it’s about your own game and it’s about improving, that’s all you’re trying to do is consistently improve and get better. But you can learn a lot being around these guys and competing against them and I think that does make you better.â€� Romo has chased golf opportunities before. He’s attempted to qualify for the U.S. Open three times, advancing to the sectional stage of qualifying in 2010. He’s made a few appearances in the AT&T Pebble Beach as an amateur, and last year he played in the Western Amateur. But there are significant differences between those attempts and the present (and future) ones. As the Cowboys quarterback, Romo’s window of playing a significant amount of golf was basically reduced to five months a year. And of course, late in his career, he battled lower back injuries, undergoing two surgeries. A compression fracture to the L1 vertebra prior to the 2016 season kept him sidelined for most of the season. He was supplanted as the starter, giving way to Dak Prescott, and eventually opted to retire in order to join Jim Nantz in the CBS broadcast booth for the 2017 season. With a year of good health and a job that allows him plenty of time on the course, Romo finally has been able to focus his attention on golf for an extended period. “I started off very rusty last spring and summer and then I started to see some good signs here over the last month or two that I feel good about with the game,â€� Romo said. “Hopefully it will show.â€� At Pebble Beach, he will partner Will Zalatoris in the team competition. Romo carries an +0.3 handicap and is one of just three amateurs with a 0 handicap (the others are investment banker Kevin Baldwin and No Doubt drummer Adrian Young). Evidently, Romo’s goals are lofty this week – at least according to Spieth. “He wants to beat the pros that are in his group,â€� Spieth said, referring to Zalatoris and Hunter Mahan. “That’s kind of his goal. He thinks he can win this golf tournament if he played it with us.â€� Romo smiled upon hearing the comments: “Jordan just set me up for failure a little bit.â€� So how will Romo define success at Corales Puntacana? Just like his long-range future, it’s tough to say. “I really don’t know, to be honest with you,â€� he replied. “I’ve never played golf for a year straight. I don’t know what constitutes (success). More than anything, I’m not putting any expectations as far as what’s going to make a successful week. “You play and compete in tournaments to know what to practice. The tournament will show me a lot.â€� However it turns out for Romo – not only in the Dominican Republic but also this week at Pebble Beach — it should be fun to watch. Spieth often plays with Romo when the two are back home in Dallas. The 11-time TOUR winner is quite impressed with the former quarterback of his favorite NFL team. “His short game is fantastic,â€� Spieth said. “He’s walking in putts from 15 feet at home. I mean, walking them in almost every hole. It’s really impressive. We’ll see if he walks them in out here. It’s harder to walk them in on poa annua. “But he’s a guy that when he gets kind of a feeling, he sees a couple shots – he believes it like this. And then he can hit a hundred of them in a row. His muscle memory, his hand-eye coordination, is really special. So I have no doubt he’ll shoot under par every round out here from where they’re playing from.â€�

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The PGA TOUR makes its final Texas stop of the season, visiting historic Colonial Country Club for the Charles Schwab Challenge. FedExCup leader – and native Texan – Scottie Scheffler headlines the field that features five of the world’s top 10. FIELD NOTES: After a missed cut at the PGA Championship, Scheffler, who has won four times this season, is back in action… Bryson DeChambeau is listed in the field. He tried to give it a go at the PGA Championship but withdrew on the eve of the tournament because his hand wasn’t fully recovered from surgery in April… Collin Morikawa will tee it up in Fort Worth. He finished T14 a year ago and lost to Daniel Berger in a playoff in 2020… Jason Kokrak returns to defend his title from 2021. Kokrak, a three-time TOUR winner, won twice last year, and both titles came in Texas with former Longhorns finishing runner-up. He beat Jordan Spieth at Colonial and Scottie Scheffler was runner-up (along with Kevin Tway) to Kokrak at the Hewlett Packard Enterprise Houston Open… This year’s Champions Choice selections are Stephan Jaeger and Min Woo Lee… Sponsor exemptions include Erik Compton, John Pak and the past two U.S. Amateur champions, James Piot and Tyler Strafaci. Pak won last year’s Hogan Award, which is awarded at Colonial, as the top player in college and amateur golf. He also finished atop last year’s PGA TOUR University Velocity Global Ranking. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 500 FedExCup points. COURSE: Colonial Country Club, par 70, 7,209 yards. The PGA TOUR heads to the Perry Maxwell and John Bredemus design in Fort Worth, Texas, for the 77th time. It’s the longest-running non-major on TOUR to be contested on the same course. Many of the TOUR’s best who teed it up at the PGA Championship will be treated to a double dose of Maxwell, as the Oklahoma designer was the chief behind Southern Hills Country Club as well. Shot-making and accuracy will be the keys to success once again at Colonial. The course hosted the U.S. Open in 1941, the U.S. Women’s Open in 1991, and the second edition of THE PLAYERS. Like Southern Hills, Colonial is another Maxwell design that is set to undergo a Gil Hanse renovation. It was scheduled for this year but due to supply chain issues, the process will begin after the 2023 Charles Schwab Challenge. STORYLINES: Jordan Spieth is hoping he’ll continue his fine play around Colonial. Spieth, who moved to eighth in the FedExCup after his win at the RBC Heritage and his runner-up at the AT&T Byron Nelson, has three runners-up in Fort Worth plus a victory in 2016… Only one golfer has ever defended his title in Fort Worth. Ben Hogan did it twice, one reason that Colonial came to be known as Hogan’s Alley… Scottie Scheffler leads the FedExCup by nearly twice as many points as Sam Burns (who is also teeing it up at the Charles Schwab Challenge) but comes to Fort Worth after his first missed cut since last October… K.H. Lee is looking for his own Texas two-step. Lee successfully defended the AT&T Byron Nelson the week prior to the PGA, winning by one over Spieth… Viktor Hovland is the other world top-10 player in the field alongside Scheffler, Morikawa, Spieth, and Justin Thomas… The winner of the Charles Schwab Challenge will once again get a restored sports car (Kevin Na got a 1973 Dodge Challenger in 2019 while Jason Kokrak got a 1946 Schwab Power Wagon). This year’s winner will get a 1979 Pontiac Firebird, which tournament organizers have nicknamed the “Schwab Firebird.” 72-HOLE RECORD: 259, Zach Johnson (2010). 18-HOLE RECORD: 61, Keith Clearwater (2nd round, 1993), Lee Janzen (4th round, 1993), Greg Kraft (3rd round, 1999), Kenny Perry (3rd round, 2003), Justin Leonard (4th round, 2003), Chad Campbell (3rd round, 2004), Kevin Na (4th round, 2018). LAST TIME: Jason Kokrak’s even-par 70 in the final round of last year’s Charles Schwab Challenge was enough, as Jordan Spieth struggled to a 3-over 73 and finished two shots back of Kokrak. It was Kokrak’s second career TOUR title. Spieth, the clear rooting favorite of the partisan Texas crowds, was still in the mix after making the turn on Sunday, but two late bogeys – including one on the 72nd hole after he hit his approach into the water – derailed his chances. Kokrak made five bogeys Sunday but offset each of them with five birdies. For Spieth, it was his third runner-up finish at Colonial. Charley Hoffman’s 5-under 65 was tied for the low round of the day Sunday, and that helped him move into a tie for third alongside Patton Kizzire, Sebastian Munoz, and Ian Poulter. That foursome finished at 10 under, four shots back of Kokrak’s winning score. HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday-Friday, 4 p.m.-7 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday, 2 p.m.-5:30 p.m. (Golf Channel), 5:30 p.m.-7 p.m. (CBS). Sunday, 1 p.m.-2 p.m. (Golf Channel), 2 p.m.-6:30 p.m. (CBS). Radio: Thursday-Friday, 1 p.m.–7 p.m. ET. Saturday, 2 p.m.-7 p.m. Sunday, 1 p.m.-6:30 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

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