Quick Look at the Dell Technologies Championship

Si Woo Kim learned the bad news shortly after becoming the youngest winner of THE PLAYERS Championship: no one has ever gone back-to-back at TPC Sawgrass. The strongest field in golf and the penal Stadium Course make it tough to win the event more than once. Kim’s game is trending in the right direction after enlisting two of the game’s top coaches, though. He began working with Josh Gregory in February and Andrew Getson a month later.  They helped Kim have success at two other Pete Dye courses, Harbour Town Golf Links and Austin Country Club. Now Kim’s focus is on Dye’s groundbreaking design in northeast Florida. “I’ve noticed a lot of champions that come back don’t play well,â€� Kim, 22, said. “I would like to change that.â€� Gregory, who also coaches Masters champion Patrick Reed, has focused on Kim’s short game and serves as his “performance coachâ€�, helping him devise training regimens that bring out his best. Getson, the coach of 2007 PLAYERS champion Phil Mickelson, has helped Kim with his full swing. “After winning THE PLAYERS last year, I think I set a high expectation for myself, which kind of hindered me for the rest of the season and into this year,â€� said Kim, who also won the 2017 Wyndham Championship. The self-imposed pressure showed in his early-season results. He was 27 over par in his first 12 rounds of 2017-18. Even with a third-place finish in the OHL Classic at Mayakoba, he was 59th in the FedExCup after missing the cut at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. Things started to turn around in his next start. Kim made the Round of 16 at the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play and finished T24 at the Masters. Then he was runner-up at the RBC Heritage. Since Bay Hill, Kim has leapt 31 positions in the FedExCup. Getson, who prefers to keep his instruction simple, said most of their work has focused on Kim’s posture at address. “He was twisted up like a pretzel,â€� Getson said. “His weight was a little on his left side, his shoulders were a little open. We got him into a more athletic position.â€� When Kim was misaligned, he used his hands to take the club back. The club got inside too quickly and his weight stayed on his left side. That caused his club to get too steep on the downswing. Getting into the proper address position has helped him rotate properly throughout the swing. They’ve also worked to keep his chin up so that it doesn’t inhibit his shoulder turn. Now Kim is taking the clubhead back on the proper path and shifting to his right side. “Once he gets set up correctly, he turns beautifully,â€� Getson said. “He’s extremely talented. When I ask him to do something, he does it within two swings.â€� Kim ranks 23rd in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee (+0.59) after ranking second (+1.36) in that statistic at last year’s PLAYERS. The short game also was key to Kim’s PLAYERS win. He was third in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green (+1.23) at TPC Sawgrass; he ranks 32nd (+0.29) in that statistic this season. Gregory has improved Kim’s putting and helped him develop a wider array of short-game shots. They’ve done it through technical changes and drills. Kim made only one bogey in THE PLAYERS’ last two rounds despite hitting just 19 of 36 greens in regulation. He needed just 49 putts in the final two rounds. This season, Kim ranks 201st in Strokes Gained: Putting despite a recent improvement. He lost strokes in the first six events where the statistic was measured, from The RSM Classic to the Genesis Open. Kim has gained strokes in three of his last five stroke-play starts. His putter cost him down the stretch at the RBC Heritage, but he still gained strokes on the greens that week. He was second-worst on TOUR in Strokes Gained: Putting when he arrived at Harbour Town. The problem? Kim’s was lifting his left shoulder through impact. “He’d lift that shoulder and that would keep the face open,â€� Gregory said. Gregory also changed Kim’s swing on short-game shots. “His face was too shut on the backswing and he was cutting across the ball. Now the face is more open and he feels like he’s hitting a bit more of a draw,â€� Gregory said. “The swing is a little more rounded. We’re trying to give him more shots around the green, especially some higher, softer ones.â€� Gregory also designs drills that make it easier for his players to take their improvements onto the course. For example, Gregory will have Kim hit three chip shots to the same flag. Each shot must have a different trajectory, though. “You need three short-game shots: the low, drawing, running shot, the medium spinner and the high, soft shot,â€� Gregory said. “They’re all done with the same swing. It’s just about changing the clubface.â€� Kim also will chip or putt to one hole but move 10 feet farther back each time. “The more you can randomize practice, the easier it is to transfer to the course,â€� Gregory said. He also has Kim place five balls around a hole on the putting green. Instead of placing the balls in a circle, Gregory will put each ball at a different distance ranging from 4-12 feet. This forces Kim to hit putts with different breaks from different distances. Kim was leaving too many of his putts from 8-15 feet short and on the low side. That was the problem down the stretch at RBC Heritage, where he missed several short putts to fall into a playoff with Satoshi Kodaira. Now Kim can combine these physical improvements with what Getson considers his strongest attribute. “His mind is his biggest asset. He’s not scared,â€� Getson said. “He’s not scared to stand there and hit the shot he needs to hit. TPC Sawgrass requires you to produce the right shot at the right time, and he can do that.â€� Kim has put in the work. Now it’s time to see if he can make history.

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COLUMBUS, Ohio – After signing for a 5-under 66 in the final round of the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship, Justin Suh made a beeline for the 18th green at The Ohio State University GC (Scarlet). Suh’s longtime friend Joseph Bramlett was finishing up a final-round 68 for a T6 finish in central Ohio, plenty to secure a PGA TOUR return via the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. Suh is nine years younger than Bramlett, but the two met when Suh was a sixth grader in the San Jose metroplex and Bramlett was a college student at Stanford. Both grew up in the region and practiced regularly at San Jose Country Club. Suh, 25, had cemented his first TOUR card via the Regular Season Points List. After finishing outside the top 150 on the FedExCup, Bramlett needed to show out in the Finals to cement a TOUR return and join Suh for his rookie season. With back-to-back top-20s to begin the Finals, Bramlett did just that, marking the third consecutive year he will earn a TOUR card via The Finals 25. Suh was there to share the moment. He provided a heartfelt hug and shoulder massage and dialed up a friend for a congratulatory message as Bramlett exited the 18th green and headed to sign his card and make it official. “It will be nice to have a big brother as a practice partner,” reflected Suh upon learning that Bramlett was officially #TOURBound. “It will be a fun year. We played a bunch of practice rounds when he first came out of college; I’m just happy for him that he got his card back, and we’ll be traveling together and playing a lot of practice rounds.” These moments provide the heartbeat of the Korn Ferry Tour, friends being there for each other as they achieve their dreams. Suh knows how hard Bramlett has worked to ensure that he can continue to compete at golf’s highest level, after years of injury and uncertainty where Bramlett wasn’t sure if he could ever play competitive golf again, let alone on the PGA TOUR. After signing his scorecard Sunday in central Ohio, Bramlett grew reflective and emotional. He thought of what it means to compete on TOUR, as well as the challenges of constantly honing all aspects of the game. In recent years, Bramlett said he perhaps spent too much time on his long game, at the expense of chipping practice. He has re-emphasized the short game in recent months, implementing a series of intentional drills that foster a competitive streak. Throughout the week at the Scarlet Course, Bramlett’s short game was on point, particularly in a final-round 68 where he rebounded from a double bogey at No. 4 and didn’t record a score worse than par from then on. Now the 34-year-old is set for his fifth TOUR season, beginning at next month’s Fortinet Championship in California – not far from where he and Suh grew up, honed their games and commenced the pursuit of their professional golf dreams. “That’s Q-School on steroids,” Bramlett described the Finals. “It’s three weeks of Q-School. Last week was incredibly stressful, this week’s incredibly stressful and next week’s going to be the same. I’m very fortunate that I at least know where I’ll be heading next year. “That’s the part of this job, nothing’s guaranteed. That’s the beauty of sport and beauty of competition and what makes the PGA TOUR so great, is that you have to back it up each and every week. This year I didn’t do a great job of that. I competed, I gave it everything I have, but my results just didn’t get me far enough. “It’s humbling, especially going from fully exempt this year in my own category to not even having (conditional) 126-to-150 category next year and basically just having Korn Ferry Tour status. Very humbling, but that’s the beauty of what we do … Never felt more alive than I do when I’m coming down the stretch with a lot on the line. You know, it’s a beautiful place to be, it’s what we train for. It’s scary, it’s stressful, you never know what’s going to happen, but see it through.” Two players – Will Gordon and Philip Knowles – crossed the fail-safe threshold to earn a TOUR card via The Finals 25 at last week’s Finals-opening Albertsons Boise Open presented by Chevron. The Korn Ferry Tour utilized a fail-safe threshold of 220 points to declare #TOURBound status after Boise. Based on a large contingent of players from The 25 playing well in Columbus, the Korn Ferry Tour has moved the threshold to 210 points at the conclusion of the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship. In addition to Bramlett, players to secure a spot in The Finals 25 at The Ohio State University GC (Scarlet) included winner David Lingmerth, Michael Gligic, Austin Cook, Dean Burmester and Henrik Norlander. Here’s a capsule look at the six players who cemented spots in The Finals 25 this week in central Ohio. David Lingmerth Age: 35 Hometown: Tranas, Sweden College: University of Arkansas Nationwide Children’s result: Win The Finals 25 rank: No. 2 (1,000 points) PGA TOUR starts: 198 PGA TOUR cuts made: 113 Best PGA TOUR finish: Win, 2015 Memorial Tournament presented by Workday Lingmerth played the 2021-22 TOUR season in the Past Champion category, making just 14 TOUR starts in addition to four Korn Ferry Tour starts before the Finals. He finished No. 193 on the FedExCup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List to earn a Finals berth, and he took advantage. The Sweden native had battled various doubts and injuries in recent years – he even dealt with lower back pain in recent weeks – and was without a TOUR-sanctioned top-10 finish since 2017. All he did was go wire-to-wire at the Scarlet Course for a 17-under total and two-stroke victory over Paul Haley. Lingmerth, 35, now knows that he can plan a full TOUR schedule this coming season, no longer needing to closely monitor alternate lists on a week-to-week basis. “It’s stuff that’s hard for fans, or even friends maybe that you’re kind of close with, to know some of the struggles we might be going through at times,” reflected Lingmerth after his second TOUR-sanctioned victory in central Ohio, adding to his 2015 title at the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday. “I was struggling pretty good for a while there a few years back. It’s been a long climb up the mountain to reach this point again. “I feel like if I’m in this spot and I have a chance, I try to dig in and hang on there, and I did a great job of that this week.” Michael Gligic Age: 32 Hometown: Burlington, Ontario, Canada Nationwide Children’s result: Fourth The Finals 25 rank: No. 4 (277.8 points) PGA TOUR starts: 75 PGA TOUR cuts made: 39 Best PGA TOUR finish: T4; 2021 Corales Puntacana Championship The proud Canadian earned his first TOUR card via the 2019 Korn Ferry Tour Regular Season, highlighted by an emotional victory at The Panama Championship. Gligic, 32, finished No. 135 on this year’s FedExCup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List to necessitate a return to the Korn Ferry Tour Finals; he was assured conditional TOUR status next season at minimum, but he wanted more. Gligic took care of business with a solo fourth in Columbus, carding four rounds in the 60s to finish 12-under total at the Scarlet Course. The 14-year pro spent a good deal of time on PGA TOUR Canada before breaking through on the 2019 Korn Ferry Tour, and he’s now set for his fourth PGA TOUR season; he finished No. 145 on last year’s FedExCup but proceeded to improve his status via The Finals 25. A year later, the savvy veteran did it again. Joseph Bramlett Age: 34 Hometown: San Jose, California College: Stanford University Nationwide Children’s result: T6 The Finals 25 rank: No. 5 (267.458 points) PGA TOUR starts: 104 PGA TOUR cuts made: 53 Best PGA TOUR finish: T7; 2021 AT&T Byron Nelson For the third consecutive Finals iteration, Bramlett has earned a spot in The Finals 25, demonstrating a propensity for raising his level of play when he needs it most. The California native earned his first TOUR card via Q-School in fall 2010, but he finished a distant No. 199 on the FedExCup as a rookie and returned to the Korn Ferry Tour. Bramlett dealt with severe back injuries for the better part of five years, seeing countless surgeons in the process, but opted not for surgery in order to maintain the best chance of returning to the highest level of the game. His self-belief was validated at the 2019 Korn Ferry Tour Finals, as he recorded three consecutive top-30 finishes to earn a TOUR return. He finished No. 146 on the 2021 FedExCup to require a return to the Finals; he didn’t miss a beat, winning the Korn Ferry Tour Championship at Victoria National to earn the No. 1 spot on The Finals 25 and fully exempt TOUR status for 2021-22. Bramlett finished No. 162 on the 2022 FedExCup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List to lose his TOUR status. He needed to place inside The Finals 25 to earn back his TOUR card. With back-to-back top-20 finishes – T18 in Boise and T6 in Columbus – Bramlett has done just that. He’s headed back to the TOUR. Austin Cook Age: 31 Hometown: Little Rock, Arkansas College: University of Arkansas Nationwide Children’s result: T34 The Finals 25 rank: No. 6 (233 points) PGA TOUR starts: 136 PGA TOUR cuts made: 76 Best PGA TOUR finish: Win; 2017 The RSM Classic The spunky Arkansas native gained a quick following in golf circles with five top-25s in seven TOUR starts as a non-member in 2015, and he proceeded onto the Korn Ferry Tour, eventually earning his TOUR card via the 2017 Korn Ferry Tour. He didn’t waste any time making an impact on TOUR, securing his first title at The RSM Classic that fall. After finishing 136th on the 2021 FedExCup, Cook successfully navigated the Korn Ferry Tour Finals to earn back strong status, but he again finished outside the top 125 this season (No. 149 on the FedExCup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List) to require another trip to the Finals. He didn’t miss a beat, following up a T4 at last week’s Albertsons Boise Open presented by Chevron with a T34 in Columbus, rebounding from a Saturday 74 with a final-round, 2-under 69 to cross the fail-safe threshold for a spot in The Finals 25. Cook had been assured conditional TOUR status at minimum. Now he’ll have a better sense of his schedule moving forward. Dean Burmester Age: 33 Hometown: Bloemfontein, South Africa Nationwide Children’s result: T46 The Finals 25 rank: No. 7 (218 points) PGA TOUR starts: 12 PGA TOUR cuts made: 8 Best PGA TOUR finish: T10, 2022 Genesis Scottish Open With back-to-back top-11 finishes at the Genesis Scottish Open and The Open Championship, the accomplished DP World Tour pro accrued enough non-member FedExCup points to qualify for the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. The married father-of-two has long held aspirations of competing at the PGA TOUR level, and with strong play across the last two weeks, the 33-year-old has made that dream a reality. Burmester opened the Finals with a T4 last week in Boise, and he recalls walking off the 18th green on Sunday in upbeat spirits, almost like he had won the tournament, despite finishing one stroke shy of a playoff. He knew he was on the verge of a dream. With a made cut in Ohio, final-round 69 and T46 finish, he has cemented his spot in The Finals 25. Burmester comes from an athletic family; his dad played professional cricket and his mom was a highly accomplished amateur golfer. He began dabbling in golf as an elementary schooler but didn’t start to consider it a realistic career pursuit until age 17, when he won the first tournament he entered, breaking 70 to do so. He turned pro at age 20, earned Sunshine Tour status through Q-School and commenced a steady upward progression. Now he’s headed to the PGA TOUR. “Man, it’s a long road from where I came from,” reflected Burmester after the final round in Columbus. “A junior taking up the game fairly late; always played when I was younger, and my parents just dragged me to the golf course on holidays, playing 72 holes a day. Now I get goosebumps thinking about where I’m headed to, No. 1 tour in the world and best job in the world. I’m just excited.” Henrik Norlander Age: 35 Hometown: Stockholm, Sweden College: Augusta University Nationwide Children’s result: T6 The Finals 25 rank: No. 8 (210.102 points) PGA TOUR starts: 130 PGA TOUR cuts made: 75 Best PGA TOUR finish: T2; 2016 The RSM Classic, 2021 Farmers Insurance Open Norlander joins Lingmerth as Swedes to cement a spot in The Finals 25 this week in Ohio. The 35-year-old has spent five full seasons on TOUR, but after a No. 144 finish on the FedExCup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List, he was faced with a trip to the Finals to improve upon conditional status. He started the Finals strong with a T37 in Boise, and he maintained the momentum with a T6 at the Scarlet Course, closing with a 4-under 67 to cross the fail-safe threshold and secure a spot in The Finals 25. With two runner-up finishes on TOUR, Norlander has proved the ability to contend at the highest level. Now the two-time Korn Ferry Tour winner will have plenty of opportunities to chase his first TOUR title.

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