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Matt Every ended Day 3 with the lead, but the third round was cut short due to a long weather delay in Dallas.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Justin Thomas won the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational on Sunday by three shots for his third win of the PGA TOUR season. Thomas also moved to No. 1 in the world for the first time since June 2018. Thomas dueled defending champion Brooks Koepka down the final holes, sealing the World Golf Championship victory on the par-5 16th. Thomas, who still leads the FedExCup standings, took the lead for good with his second straight birdie, while Koepka bogeyed the hole. Koepka pulled within a stroke with a 39-footer for birdie on No. 17. But Koepka put his tee shot into the water along the 18th fairway on his way to double bogey, allowing Thomas to finish up an easy par putt for what wound up a three-stroke victory. RELATED: Final leaderboard Thomas closed with a 5-under 66 to finish at 13-under 267 and won for the 13th time in his PGA TOUR career. At 27, he became the third-youngest player since 1960 to reach 13 PGA TOUR wins, trailing only Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus. This was the fifth time Thomas rallied to win, and he matched his biggest comeback after starting the day four strokes back of third-round leader Brendon Todd. Thomas has three wins this season, two since the start of the year. The last time Thomas was world No. 1, he spent four weeks at the top of the ranking. He will supplant Jon Rahm, who became No. 1 after winning at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide two weeks ago. Koepka will go to TPC Harding Park in San Francisco looking to defend his PGA championship title. He finished with a 69 and tied for second with Phil Mickelson (67), Daniel Berger (65) and Tom Lewis (66). Thomas started Sunday with Jim “Bones” Mackay on his bag playing in the same group with Mickelson for the first time since Mickelson split with his longtime caddie. Thomas made up the deficit with four birdies on the front nine and just missed another birdie chance on No. 8. His 20-footer on No. 9 tied Todd at 12 under. Todd, whose putting had carried him through the first three rounds, three-putted for bogey from 23 feet on the par-3 eighth, leaving Thomas alone atop the leaderboard. Thomas put his second on the par-4 12th into a greenside bunker near the back edge and chopped it out to the rough. He chipped out from an awkward stance to salvage bogey. That created a five-way tie at 11 under with Koepka, Berger, Lewis and Todd. Koepka took the lead to himself on the par-4 13th. He hit his approach from 133 yards to 10 feet of the pin, and Koepka sunk the putt for his third birdie of the round to go to 12 under. After hitting his tee shot 321 yards to the rough 51 yards short of the hole on No. 15, Thomas hit to 6 feet for a birdie, tying Koepka at 12 under with three to play. Thomas found the rough far right of the cart path on the par-5 16th, then hit his third from the left rough 65 yards to 3 feet for his second straight birdie. Koepka, in the group behind Thomas, tried to answer 42 yards from the hole. His shot landed close to the hole only to keep rolling to the back of the green. Koepka wound up two-putting from 8 feet for bogey.
Patrick Reed won THE NORTHERN TRUST the last time it was held at Liberty National, in 2019. This one, though, has been one to forget. First Reed pulled out of the tournament with an ankle injury. Then, as his fellow competitors were playing the rain-delayed final round Monday, he issued a statement to the Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis that he’s home in Houston battling double-pneumonia. “The good news is, my ankle is okay,” Reed wrote, in part. “The bad news is I’ve been in the hospital with bilateral pneumonia. I’m on the road to recovery, once I’m cleared from the doctors – I look forward to returning. I wish you all the best and I can’t wait to get back out there! “Thank you so much for your support,” he continued, “it means a lot to me. Also, a special thank you to the doctors, nurses, and staff at The Methodist Hospital in the Texas Medical Center.” Like many players, Reed has had a demanding travel schedule this summer. He’s flown from the Rocket Mortgage Classic (T32) to The Open Championship (MC) to the 3M Open (T34) to the Olympic Games in Tokyo (T22), where he was a late replacement for Bryson DeChambeau. Then it was right back home for the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational in Memphis, Tennessee (T31). If Reed is unable to play this week at the BMW Championship at Caves Valley Golf Club in Maryland, it would be three straight events he will have missed with illness or injury after spraining his ankle at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude. Reed came into THE NORTHERN TRUST at 22nd in the FedExCup standings. He hasn’t missed the top-30 TOUR Championship since 2013. He’s also ninth in the U.S. Ryder Cup standings for the team that Steve Stricker will captain at Whistling Straits next month. The top six in points automatically qualify; others will require a pick.
