Patrick Reed, the Presidents Cup and the next step in Team USA drama

ATLANTA — Ahead of the 2019 TOUR Championship, PGATOUR.COM took a look at what equipment the final 30 players had in their bag and were testing. Featured in the gallery below is the equipment of Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Matt Kuchar, Brandt Snedeker, Gary Woodland, Rory McIlroy, Hideki Matsuyama and more. Enjoy! 

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GREENSBORO, N.C. – What’s your number? It’s more than a pickup line at this week’s Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club, where those orbiting the 125th spot in the FedExCup standings are acutely aware of it. The top 125 after this week go directly to the FedExCup Playoffs, which start at Liberty National in just eight days, and also secure their playing status for next season. Others will be left to rue what might have been, and take stock of their options going forward. “It’s obviously a huge week for everybody in the field,� said Brandt Snedeker, who won here last year, when he opened with a 59, and in 2007. “For guys trying to keep their card, for guys trying to move up in the FedExCup points list, for a guy like me who, every point really matters right now trying to solidify a good regular season and get ready – I’m trying to make it to East Lake.� At 32nd in the FedExCup, Snedeker, a nine-time PGA TOUR winner who won the FedExCup in 2012, still has some work to do to get to the season-ender in Atlanta, but he’s looking good for the first two stops in the FedExCup Playoffs, The Northern Trust and the BMW Championship. As it stands now, Lucas Glover (30) would be the last man into the TOUR Championship, which is no small thing for a guy who has played in that tournament just once, in 2009 (T10). “I guess in ’17 I was 50-ish,� Glover said of the last time he was looking this good this late in the season. “Before that it had been a while. The game’s solid. Nothing’s been great; just solid.� Still, solid is a huge upgrade from a year ago at this time, when he was recovering from surgery to repair two meniscus tears in his left knee. “I’ve been working hard a couple years,� he said. “I’m finally healthy. It’s nice to be able to bend down to read a putt and not have to wince.� It’s those near that all-important 125th spot, though, who have the most on the line at Sedgefield, even if their situations are occasionally complicated. Consider the cases of Martin Trainer (128) and Jim Herman (138), who won the Puerto Rico Open and Barbasol Championship, respectively, this season. They will enjoy full status through 2021, but thanks to a spate of missed cuts for each, they have work to do to get to the Playoffs. Then there are those who find themselves way down the list, for whom a “victory� this week could be simply cracking the top 200 to earn a spot in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. Here are five players riding the bubble at the Wyndham: Alex Noren (125) – The Bubble Boy at 125th in the FedExCup, Noren finished T12 at the World Golf Championships – FedEx St. Jude Invitational, and T11 at The Open Championship. “I’ve had two pretty good weeks, so the game feels a lot better,� said Noren, who is ranked 44th in the world. “I’m just trying to play good golf and see what happens. It would be nice to make the Playoffs. I’m trying to get to next week and the following week. I’ve been working on hitting it better with the irons, hitting it closer and hitting more greens.� Daniel Berger (131) – Two-time TOUR winner Berger is still looking for a bounce-back after returning from a hand injury. When the best players in the world assembled at TPC Southwind in Memphis for the World Golf Championships – FedEx St. Jude Invitational last week, Berger, who’d won twice there, wasn’t qualified. He can still get back to Liberty National, where he clinched the winning point for the U.S. Team at the 2017 Presidents Cup. “It’s taken a whole year,� he said of his comeback from injury. “I’m finally starting to feel good. You take some time off from competitive anything and it’s tough to get back into it.� Andrew Landry (132) – After an energizing third-place finish at the John Deere Classic, he took a week off, then missed the cut at the Barracuda Championship. As the Valero Texas Open champ last year, he’s already exempt next season, but has work to do in order to make the Playoffs. “I’m never super-sharp the first week back off of a break, so that’s kind of why I played Barracuda,� Landry said. “I had sort of a weird first round, but turned it around and shot bogey-free 6 under in the second. Everything is really, really solid right now. This is one of my favorite courses to play. I’m going to contend this week; I have a good feeling about it.� Martin Kaymer (146) – He’s won two majors and THE PLAYERS Championship, but has work to do if he wants to advance to The Northern Trust. “I have to finish in the top six or seven,� said Kaymer, whose third-place finish at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide is his only top-25 result this season. “I think (Sedgefield) is an underrated golf course and is one of the better ones that we play on the PGA TOUR. I’ve played 10 of the last 12 weeks just to try to get my number up and get into the FedExCup Playoffs, so I’ve tried everything I can think of.� Alex Cejka (205) – He’s unconcerned about whether or not he gets inside the top 200 to advance to the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. That’s because Cejka will turn 50 and be PGA TOUR Champions eligible at the end of 2020, so the prospect of playing less next year is enticing. “I have no pressure,� he said. “I don’t care if I make top 125 or top 200. I’ve been 17, 18 years out here. I need a little break before I turn 50. … If I make it (inside the top 200), I go to the Finals; if not, it’s even better. I’ve got to work a little on the fitness, a little on the swing, and I’ll still get into some fall events. A lot of my colleagues who are just inside or outside the number – they’re sweating.�

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AUSTIN, Texas — Needing to win the final hole to advance, Robert MacIntrye drilled a driver to 3 feet of the cup on he 371-yard 18th hole. Moments later, Sergio Garcia ended one of the record eight sudden-death playoffs with a hole-in-one. RELATED: Bracket, Scoring | Things you may have missed, WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play Day 3 Already the most fickle event in golf, the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play on Friday was an endless frenzy. Kevin Na discussed with Dustin Johnson about waiting for a putt to be conceded — 6 inches — and then birdied the last two holes to oust the No. 1 player in the world. Patrick Cantlay, practically flawless with 14 birdies and an eagle over two days, managed only two birdies and lost a playoff with a three-putt. When it finally ended, Jon Rahm at No. 3 was the only player from the top 20 seeds who made it to the knockout stage of the weekend at Austin Country Club. “You just never know what can happen out there,” Billy Horschel said after beating Max Homa on the third playoff hole. Just about everything did. Garcia beat Lee Westwood in the longest of the eight playoffs with a 9-iron from 161 yards to a front pin on the par-3 fourth hole that landed just beyond the pin and trickled back into the cup. Equally stunning was the drive of MacIntyre, the 24-year-old from Scotland with plenty of spunk and loads of fight. He was 1 down against Adam Long, who was poised to advance with Johnson in the group ahead about to lose to Na. Johnson backed away from his 6-foot par putt — Na only had 4 feet for birdie — and his caddie, brother Austin, stepped in a few feet from the cup to help read the putt. Out of nowhere, a ball shot up the left side of the bank around the green and rolled in front of the caddie’s feet. Dustin had to mark MacIntyre’s ball so he could putt. MacIntyre was oblivious to what happened except he knew he hit the shot of his life. “Probably one of the best and one of the luckiest golf shots I’ve hit in my life,” MacIntyre said. “You’ve just got to keep fighting until the end, and it just shows anything can happen in this game.” His only chance was a low bullet, and it caught the downward slope for extra run toward the left side of the green, which MacIntyre couldn’t see. He heard it was on the green. “I didn’t have a clue how close,” MacIntyre said. I’m thinking it’s going to be just on the green below the slope. Going to have hopefully two putts maybe to win the hole. But when I seen where they put the ball back down I was like, `No way!’ “And that’s what you play the game for, these moments.” Given how three days of group play has gone, there is no telling what to expect on the win-or-go-home weekend. It will include a trio of Texas Longhorns, including Jordan Spieth for the first time since 2016. He won three straight holes around the turn and, unlike Thursday when he let Matthew Wolff off the hook, Spieth managed to close out Corey Conners. Scottie Scheffler halved his match when Xander Schauffele made an 8-foot birdie putt on the last hole, and then Scheffler returned the favor with a 12-foot birdie on the second extra hole. The other Longhorn is Dylan Frittelli of South Africa, who became the first No. 64 seed in Match Play history to make it to the weekend. Frittelli had company. Two other players seeded at No. 60 or lower made it to the knockout stage. Ian Poulter won his third straight match as the No. 60 seed, while Erik van Rooyen (62) advanced by beating Daniel Berger with a par on the second playoff hole. Poulter and Matt Kuchar are the only players to have won all three matches. Kuchar knocked out defending champion Kevin Kisner with a 20-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole. The 64-man field based on the world ranking was divided into groups of 16 based, with the final 16 assigned to the “D” group. Eight of those players are still in the game. Rahm was the only player from the “A” group of top 16 seeds. Brian Harman felt a small measure of redemption. He shot the equivalent of a 64 in the opening round and still lost to Cantlay, who had seven birdies and an eagle. But when Cantlay fell flat and lost to Hideki Matsuyama, that sent Cantlay and Harman back out for a sudden-death playoff that Harman won when Cantlay’s 4-foot par putt lipped out. Garcia was amazed by his ace, but he was quick to point out that he had to make a 10-footer and an 8-footer for par on the previous two holes just to stay in the match during the playoff. The eight playoffs to decide group winners broke the previous mark of five in 2017 since group play began six yeas ago. “The two putts I made … massive to keep myself going,” Garcia said. “And then obviously the shot on 4, it’s a great shot, but then you get lucky that first of all it doesn’t hit the flag because it must have been very close to hitting the flag, and then it rolls back in. Obviously, very happy about that.”

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