Power Rankings: THE CJ CUP

PUNTA CANA, Dominican Republic — Ben Martin shot his second straight 6-under 66 on Friday to double his lead to two strokes in the PGA TOUR’s Corales Puntacana Championship. RELATED: Leaderboard | WGC-Match Play Day 3 Match Recaps Martin had four birdies in a late five-hole stretch, finishing the afternoon round on the front nine at breezy Corales Golf Course. “I think the course was playing a little easier,” Martin said. “The wind was up yesterday morning more than it was this afternoon. But it was starting to dry out some in the afternoon, so a little give and take there.” He began the late run with a birdie on the par-5 fourth and added three more on the par-4 sixth, par-5 seventh and par-4 eighth. He also started fast, birdieing the first three holes. “I’ve just been in a great mindset,” Martin said. I think more than anything, my swing feels in a good place, I’m rolling it nice. So everything kind of feels easy and I’m not putting too much pressure on myself and making some birdies when I have chances, but not trying to do too much.” The 34-year-old former Clemson player has made only one other PGA TOUR start this year, missing the cut in Puerto Rico with rounds of 78 and 70. He won the 2014 Shriners Hospitals for Children Open for his lone PGA TOUR title. “Not having a great status, I think that motivated me to get back out,” Martin said. “I would say over the last six months sort of I’ve been working harder, working smarter than I have in the past four or five years.” Alex Smalley was second at 10 under after a 65. The TOUR rookie from Duke countered an opening double bogey with an eagle on No. 4 and closed with birdies on Nos. 7 and 9. On his first hole, his mother helped him by finding his ball in a bush. “Not how I wanted to start, not super happy, but she saved me a good 190-yard walk,” Smalley said. Chad Ramey (65) and Adam Schenk (68) were 9 under. Schenk also eagled the fourth. He advanced to the weekend for the third time in his last 10 starts. “Just play your game and just worry about yourself,” Schenk said. “I look at handling 18 situations, 18 holes and just handle each situation you get on every hole just to the best of your ability and kind of block out the rest.” Graeme McDowell, the 2019 winner, was 8 under after his second 68. He birdied four of his last five holes. “Key finish to get my momentum back moving into the weekend,” McDowell said. “Continuing to feel very comfortable, like the way the greens are setting up, driving it really well and just got to keep doing more of the same really.” Nate Lashley was 7 under after a 68. Nicolai Hojgaard of Denmark, the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 77 in the world, missed the cut by a stroke with rounds of 73 and 71. His twin brother, Rasmus, was 4 under after a 67. The tournament is being played opposite the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play event in Austin, Texas. The winner will be exempt into the PGA Championship. Defending champion Joel Dahmen withdrew because of illness. He opened with a 71.

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JEJU ISLAND, South Korea (AP) — Brooks Koepka shot a 5-under 67 Saturday to take a four-stroke lead after three rounds of THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES. Koepka had a three-round total of 13-under 203. Ian Poulter, who shot 68 Saturday, was tied for second place with second-round leader Scott Piercy, who had a 72. Justin Thomas shot a 71 Saturday and is at 1-under, 11 strokes behind Koepka and tied for 43rd. There were six golfers tied for fourth, including Rafa Cabrera Bello, who shot 65 Saturday, and first-round leader Chez Reavie (70). Shubhankar Sharma of India had the round of the day, a 64, to move to 3-under, 10 strokes behind Koepka.

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With the season’s final major championship right around the corner, only seven PGA TOUR events remain before the beginning of the lucrative FedExCup Playoffs. Several postseason stalwarts find themselves in precarious spots with less than two months to go in the Regular Season. As marquee names jockey for position down the stretch, Twenty First Group ran more than 10,000 simulations of how the rest of the PGA TOUR regular season would play out to project the likelihood of different points scenarios unfolding. The projection gives newly-minted major winner Jon Rahm the best chance at leading the FedExCup race entering THE NORTHERN TRUST (36.3%), with current FedExCup leader Patrick Cantlay right behind him (32.8%). RELATED LINKS: Twenty First Group | FedExCup standings The math says that currently, 100 of 125 spots in the standings are projected to be taken. The most intrigue lies with the remaining 20 percent of the spots still up for grabs. Here are some of the more interesting probabilities the mathematical projections unearthed: Rickie Fowler Current FedExCup position: 114 Probability of reaching Playoffs: 73.3% Strong finishes at the PGA Championship (T8) and the Memorial Tournament (T11) moved Fowler from outside the playoff picture to firmly inside the top 125. Twenty First Group probability models now have Fowler at a better than 73 percent chance to reach the FedExCup Playoffs. Fowler’s marked recent improvement can’t just be tied to one particular statistic. Entering the PGA Championship, he was averaging +0.22 Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green per round, and -0.39 Strokes Gained: Putting per round. In his last four starts, he’s gaining more than half-a-stroke per round in both statistics. Fowler has qualified for the FedExCup Playoffs every full season he’s been on TOUR (since 2010). Chesson Hadley Current FedExCup position: 116 Probability of reaching Playoffs: 55.8% Hadley’s season is a perfect example of how one week can change the narrative of an entire season. The lanky TOUR veteran has missed 13 cuts in 21 starts entering this week’s John Deere Classic, but a runner-up finish at the Palmetto Championship in June has him in a great position to make the FedExCup Playoffs for the fifth time in his career. More than 42% of Hadley’s FedExCup points for the 2020-2021 PGA TOUR season came that week in South Carolina. With just a few events left, can he turn an up-and-down campaign into a spot in the Playoffs? Tommy Fleetwood Current FedExCup position: 125 Probability of reaching Playoffs: 71.1% The man currently in the final qualifying spot in the standings, Tommy Fleetwood, is not in that spot due to the nature of his global schedule. On the contrary, his 15 starts this season are his most entering the month of July in his PGA TOUR career. Currently, Twenty First Group has Fleetwood at about a 71% chance to reach the Playoffs. Fleetwood has just a single top-10 finish in a stroke play event this season, a far cry from the previous three PGA TOUR seasons, when he was tenth or better in 38% of his starts. Fleetwood has not been as proficient with his driver in 2021, ranking outside the top 150 in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee. Still, The Open Championship – where Fleetwood finished runner-up in 2019 – presents a great opportunity to accrue the points needed to lock up a playoff spot. Dylan Frittelli Current FedExCup position: 130 Probability of reaching Playoffs: 43.8% Sitting just outside the top 125 is this week’s defending champion, Dylan Frittelli. In his 2019 John Deere Classic victory, Frittelli was lights out on and around the greens, leading the field in scrambling percentage and ranking second in Strokes Gained: Putting. Those are two statistics Frittelli has struggled with in 2021, as he’s ranked 114th in scrambling percentage and 186th in putting. After seven missed cuts in his last nine starts, the friendly confines of Sylvis, Illinois, might be just what the South African needs to right the ship. Charles Howell III Current FedExCup position: 131 Probability of reaching Playoffs: 55.1% He is one of just nine players to qualify for the FedExCup Playoffs every season since its inception in 2007, but Charles Howell III has some work to do in the coming weeks if he wants to make it 15-for-15. This week’s John Deere Classic would be a good place to start a resurgence – he finished tied for sixth here in 2019 and has eight top-25 finishes in twelve previous career starts. Howell’s approach play, in particular, has betrayed him a bit this season, as he is on pace for a career-low finish in Strokes Gained: Approach (currently ranks 194th on TOUR). TPC Deere Run could be a place that turns around, through: In his last 16 rounds played at the John Deere Classic, he’s gained a strong four-tenths of a stroke on approach shots per round.

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