PGA TOUR Statement: Health & Safety Plan Updates

NORTON, Mass. - For 66 holes you could have been forgiven for paying very little attention to Robby Shelton at THE NORTHERN TRUST. He was a modest 7-under par and in a different time zone from the leader, Dustin Johnson. Then, "a switch went off" and the inexplicable side of golf poured forth in all its glory. To brush it aside by saying he played his final six holes at TPC Boston in 6-under doesn't quite do it justice. Not when it came so shockingly and so unexpectedly and created a most favorable change in Shelton's schedule. As birthday gifts go (the onetime University of Alabama star will turn 25 Tuesday), the one he gave himself is a trip to Olympia Fields for next week's BMW Championship. RELATED: Final leaderboard | FedExCup Playoffs: Projected standings "You know, that's been my goal the whole year, to make it to the BMW," said Shelton, whose blistering 63 - 271 finish got him into a share of 13th in his first-ever FedExCup Playoff. More importantly, it enabled Shelton, who started the week 81st in the FedExCup standings, to break into the Top 70 (he's No. 62) and get a spot in next week's field. He likely will never forget the sequence of shots that got him there. Par-4 13: His ball sitting on the fringe with a piece of mud on it, Shelton could only strike the 44-foot putt and hope. "Just got kind of lucky," he said. "The ball found the center of the cup." Par-4 14: Shelton hit two brilliant shots into the 516-yard best, then drained a 13-foot putt. It was one of two birdies at the hole in Round 3. Par-4 15: It officially got glorious when his 132-yard approach hit 5 feet beyond the hole and spun back into the cup for an eagle. "I mean, it was dead center in the cup. So, pretty cool." Par-3 16: Missing the green right, Shelton wedged it to 7 ½ feet and made the clutch save. Par-4 17: From 14 feet, he made yet another crucial putt, this one for birdie. "First three days, nothing went in," he said, shaking his head. "It was just very slow. Finally, it happened." Par-5 18: His second shot from 238 yards found the green and Shelton deftly two-putted from 28 feet for his seventh birdie of the round, one that he would come to treasure for it earned him a visit to a place that is special to him. Olympia Fields is where Shelton, in 2013, won his first collegiate tournament, the Olympia Fields / Fighting Illini Invitational. The emotions piled up and while in the aftermath of his finish he sat a whopping nine strokes being Dustin Johnson, who had not yet teed off, "It kind of felt like I was winning the golf tournament for a minute there," he said. He didn't, of course, but he did win that tournament within a tournament that players challenge themselves with. "My caddie and I knew we had to get to probably Top 20, at least, to have a chance," said Shelton, who got the update after signing his card and offered a massive exhale. "I can breathe," he laughed. Coming from way back: No one came from a deeper hole to fight his way into the BMW Championship than Russell Henley, who went from No. 101 to 61. When play resumed after the three-month break, was 127th in the FedExCup standings and promptly fell even lower when he missed the cut at the RBC Heritage and went for a T-32 at the Travelers Championship. He fought into the playoffs with a T-7 at the Workday Charity Open and T-9 last week at the Wyndham Championship, the grinded even more furiously at TPC Boston. "Like I've said so many times," said Henley, "it's good golf out here; you are working hard to shave off a stroke or half-a-stroke every day. It's such a grind." Closing 68 - 269 for his third top 10 since the return to golf, Henley concedes he felt like "walking in" when he doubled the par-5 second and bogeyed the par-4 fourth. That's how much volatility is in play. But he calmed down, played the next 14 holes in a bogey-free 6-under, and punched his ticket to the next round. After the lights went out: Five players who were outside the Top 70 earned their way into next week's BMW Championship, but no one did it more dramatically than Louis Oosthuizen. When torrential rain fell, the South African was in the fairway at 18, knowing he needed birdie to get the 70th and final spot. At 7:15 p.m., he returned, waited a few minutes for Daniel Berger and Harry Higgs to finish on the green, then rifled a 3-iron 235 yards and found the green. How did he do that in the dark? "The way I was playing today, it was the best way to play," he laughed. Four-over on his round through 13 holes, Oosthuizen figured his season was done. But he birdied the par-3 16th, saw during the 1 hour 15 minute rain delay that he would make it with birdie, so he asked for the chance to hit a few balls on the range. His putt from 33 feet left him a 4-footer to seal his trip to the BMW as the 70th seed and Oosthuizen converted. Others who moved in: The other four players who started outside the Top 70 but moved in were Shelton; Alex Noren (68 -269, T8), acquitted himself nicely to move from 78th to 47th; Harry Higgs (71 - 270, T-11), who went from 72nd to 48th; and No. 66 Jason Kokrak (65 - 271, T13), who quietly earned his way into the BMW for a third straight year. The were in, now they're out: With five guys moving in, these five started inside the Top 70, but fell out - Doc Redman, Denny McCarthy, Phil Mickelson, Henrik Norlander, and Xinjun Zhang. Notables on the outside looking in: They made the cut at THE NORTHERN TRUST, so there was still hope. But, first, they needed explosive weekends. Unfortunately, it didn't work out for Ian Poulter (73-69), Rickie Fowler (71-69), Tommy Fleetwood (71-70) as they combined to shoot just 3 under when everyone around them was piling up birdies. For Fowler, the disjointed season was his worst in his 11-year career. He'll miss the BMW Championship for the first time and whereas he'd never been worse than 43rd in final FEC standings, presently he's 94th.

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LAS VEGAS - They say luck's a fortune in Las Vegas but skill can certainly get you further. Martin Laird showcased a brilliant combination of both as he claimed his second Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, outlasting Matthew Wolff and Austin Cook in a playoff at TPC Summerlin. RELATED: Full leaderboard | What’s in Laird’s bag? Playing on a sponsor's exemption as he returns from knee surgery, the Scotsman earned his fourth PGA TOUR win by getting the ultimate redemption on a hole that perhaps owed him some luck. It was his first title in over seven years. Chasing back-to-back wins after winning in 2009 (ironically in a three-man playoff), Laird joined Cameron Percy and Jonathan Byrd in extra holes in 2010. When they reached the par-3 17th he had to just stand in disbelief when Byrd made a hole-in-one to win the tournament. A decade later he would face the hole in sudden death against two others again. This time there was no ace but Laird did send a 22-foot, 11-inch birdie putt home after the other two players had missed their own chances to claim the win. "When I sit back and think about it, this win might go right to the top just because it’s been a while," Laird said. "I had a bunch of life changes since my last win. Now I’ve got a couple kids who kept asking me when I was going to win the trophy. It’s going to be nice to take a trophy home for them this time." "I’m unbelievably excited to have pulled that off today... you have some doubts at times whether you’re going to get another one. I just played so well all week this week tee to green; was probably the best I ever played. Just felt in control really all week. To see that putt go in on that hole, it was pretty special." His winning putt wasn't the only drama he faced on the infamous hole on Sunday. He came to it in regulation with a one shot lead but flailed his tee shot on the breeze and it went miles right onto a hill normally reserved for spectators. It left a tricky pitch from a downslope, over a cart path, through trees with water behind the green. The 37-year-old pulled off a magnificent shot to find the putting surface and then buried a 17-foot, 11-inch par putt. It was the longest putt he made all day Sunday (in regulation) and provided a buffer he needed when he was unable to get up and down on the 72nd hole for the win and was sent to extras. "That hole owed me one," Laird admitted. "To make that putt on 17 honestly was huge in regulation, and then to roll that putt in there to close it out, I mean, obviously it’s pretty special." Unbelievably it might not have been his best shot of the day. Earlier Laird was looking to push his early advantage on the par-5 9th hole, going for the green in two. His ball sailed on a great line only to come up fractions short, cannoning into the upper lip of a bunker where it stayed, seemingly buried and dead. But with an awkward stance and the putrid lie to deal with Laird would not only extricate the ball exceptionally, he would hole out the shot for an eagle. It was the third straight day he'd eagled the hole. "That second shot... if it flies another foot it’s an unbelievable 3-wood. It was a really bad break but it was almost lying so badly that I said to my buddy, this is lying so badly if I hit this as hard as I want it’s not going to go very far," Laird explained. "Obviously I wasn’t planning on holing it... but I was hopeful of getting inside maybe ten feet if it came out pretty good. I hit it hard as I could. The sand exploded and I couldn’t see anything, and I managed to open my eyes up as the ball landed and it started tracking. I enjoyed being down to the level of the bunker and watching that one go in. I’m not going to lie." Laird joins Jim Furyk and Kevin Na as multiple time winners of the event and won't need sponsor invites for a while having secured full status and a further two seasons after this one. He moved to fourth in the FedExCup with the win. Wolff has now finished runner up in his last two starts, falling to Bryson DeChambeau at the U.S. Open before this week. "Game is at an all-time high. I have a lot of the confidence carrying into the next two weeks and then the Masters, so looking forward to what’s next," the 21-year-old young star said. "My game has progressed amazingly and at pace that if you would’ve told me I would’ve been pretty amazed by it. I’m just looking to maybe get a win soon... I’m feeling like I can go out there and win any week now. Maybe a win is due sometime soon. But if I just keep on doing this, I’m sure it’ll come."

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THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. - Phil Mickelson has often said he owes a lot to Tiger Woods. The 50-year-old knows Woods helped golf’s popularity soar, and with it, so did the purses and exposure for sponsorship opportunities. This allowed someone as successful as Mickelson to have a very fruitful career. But as Mickelson returns to the PGA TOUR at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP @ SHERWOOD this week, fresh off claiming his second PGA TOUR Champions win in as many starts, he was praising Woods for another aspect of his own career. His longevity. Mickelson has been competitive on TOUR since winning as an amateur in 1991. "Looking back, I wish I had been a little bit more committed fitness‑wise in the height of my career… (but) Tiger pushed me to start training a little bit more, which has helped me elongate my career," Mickelson said Wednesday at Sherwood Country Club. During the last few years, Mickelson has significantly added length to his game despite his age, but while he wished he'd been even fitter, he says he doesn't regret not chasing "bombs" earlier in his career. As Bryson DeChambeau sets new marks for ball speed and distance, Mickelson says it just wouldn't have been feasible in his time. "During the prime of my career we really didn’t have launch monitors, so we weren’t able to dial a lot of this stuff in. A lot of this was by feel and seeing the ball and using vision to see, oh, it’s spinning too much, it’s floating. We didn’t have the precision to dial things in the way we do now," Mickelson said. "Now guys that are hitting it in the 180‑mile‑an‑hour ball speeds are getting pushed to go to the 190s because of Bryson and a lot of guys have to do that to keep up." While Mickelson will continue to work on the speed that is comfortable for him and his play, the 44-time TOUR winner is mindful of accuracy with driver. It has been a problem for him throughout his career. "I actually feel there’s a point of diminishing return about 182‑ to 185‑mile‑an‑hour ball speed. I think once you get over that, I don’t know if you’re really getting out of it what you put in, meaning a lot of courses won’t allow for that advantage to be taken if you get in the 190s," Mickelson explained. "Holes dogleg, you have tighter landing areas, there’s only a couple holes a golf course where it can really help you and I feel like most guys are already at that optimum distance of 182‑ to 185‑mile‑an‑hour ball speed." The veteran is full of confidence again after another victory against his former foes. He became just the third player to win in his first two starts on the PGA TOUR Champions with a win in the Dominion Energy Charity Classic last weekend. But he knows he needs to step it up to compete on the PGA TOUR. "I’m excited to compete and come off of last week’s event on (PGA TOUR Champions) and try to play, compete against the young guys. This is a fun opportunity for me," he said. "It’s been really fun for me to play and compete on (PGA TOUR Champions), a lot more so than I thought it would be. I’m surprised how much fun I’m having, how much fun it is to see some of the same guys that I’ve seen for so many years and haven’t had a chance to be with them for a number of years now. I seem to get a little bit of confidence and I’m hoping to bring that over into this event. "But the penalty for a miss is much more severe on the regular TOUR, the pin placements are a little bit more difficult. The length isn’t as different as I thought. We play the back tees on the Champions Tour and it can play every bit as long, but the courses out here are a lot more penalizing. I have to be a little bit more precise."

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