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Rahm, Stenson share lead at Hero World Challenge

NASSAU, Bahamas – News and notes from Friday’s second round of the Hero World Challenge, where a young European star (Jon Rahm) and an older one (Henrik Stenson) share the lead by one stroke. RAHM’S GROWING UP Jon Rahm won twice in the 2018 calendar year – first at the CareerBuilder Challenge on the PGA TOUR in January, and then later in his native land at the Spanish Open. But what he accomplished in his golf game wasn’t nearly as important as what happened outside the ropes. “This year was a big year of personal growth more than my golf game,â€� Rahm said Friday after shooting a sizzling bogey-free 9-under 63. “I was actually quite surprised on how well I played compared to what I had going on in my personal life … like I said, personal growth.â€� Rahm didn’t get into details, preferring to keep those things limited to family and friends. But certainly a big step in his life was his engagement in August to longtime girlfriend Kelley Cahill. They’ve set a date for the wedding, but he wasn’t ready to share it. Actually, make that two ceremonies. “We’re really thinking of doing a small ceremony in Spain just because a lot of my family members can’t fly all the way to the U.S. …,â€� he said. “So do something small in Spain and then a couple months later, do a ceremony in the U.S.â€� Cahill was on hand Friday to congratulate her future husband on the lowest round of the first two days. Rahm hit 14 of 18 greens, was solid off the tee, and was usually playing with a short club for his approach. “The best way to describe it, having five par 5s and two relatively short par 4s – out of those seven holes, I got six birdies,â€� said Rahm, who is making his Hero World Challenge debut this week. “So I capitalized on the easier holes today … Didn’t seem like much could go wrong.â€� MR. NOVEMBER? Pro golfers are usually winding down this time of year, but Henrik Stenson has made it a habit of winning in the month of November. He’s done it three times on the European Tour. Once on the Challenge Tour. And in 2008, he teamed up with Robert Karlsson to win the World Cup for Sweden. Now he’s 36 holes away from another November win, and perhaps he has a couple of advantages over most other players in the field. He’s spent the Thanksgiving weekend with his family here, and after they returned home, he had an extra day of practice at Albany. Or did he? “If you think boating is working on the game,â€� he said, “then I did a lot of practice.â€� Actually, it may be a bit of a surprise with how well Stenson’s game is going this week (he shot a 6-under 66 on Friday), considering he’s been out for five weeks while rehabbing from an elbow injury. He hasn’t shown any rust, though, and in fact the time off may be helping him this week. “I guess I should be a little bit fresher than some of my colleagues who call me from Hong Kong or somewhere else at this point,â€� Stenson said. “I’m feeling all right. Just keep it going.â€� NOTABLES TIGER UPDATE: It took a while for Tiger Woods to sign his scorecard (click here for the full story DESK please add link here) but he eventually signed for a 69 that was clean until the double bogey at 18. His iron play was better but his putting has yet to kick in through two rounds. “I finally hit my irons the way I normally do,â€� Wood said. “Other than the last tee shot, I felt I really hit the golf ball well.â€� FINAU’S EAGLE: Tony Finau shot a 64 mostly by taking advantage of the five par 5s. He had three birdies and an eagle at the ninth when he chipped in from the off the green. “I was only 12-13 yards from the hole but I was in matted-down sand,â€� Finau said. “It one-hopped on the green and rolled in like a putt. Pretty cool.â€� At 8 under through two rounds, Finau is in solo fifth, two shots off the lead. ONE SHOT BACK: Dustin Johnson and first-round co-leader Patrick Cantlay are tied for third at 9 under. Johnson shot a 67, making four consecutive birdies on his back nine. Cantlay shot a 70 in a round that included four birdies and two bogeys. TOUGH DAY FOR REED: Patrick Reed was in the final group Friday after sharing the first-round lead with Cantlay. Things didn’t go as well for him in the second round. Reed opened with two bogeys, suffered a double-bogey on the par-4 seventh and failed to make a single birdie while posting a 5-over 77 that left him at 2 under and hear the bottom of the leaderboard. BIRDIES FOR CHARITY: Jon Rahm and Patrick Cantlay are donating $500 for each birdie this week for California wildfire victims. Rahm had nine on Friday and 13 overall; Cantlay had four on Friday and 11 overall. The 24 birdies through the first two rounds equals $12,000. SHOT OF THE DAY

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Type: To Win A Major 2025 - Status: OPEN
Bryson DeChambeau+500
Jon Rahm+750
Collin Morikawa+900
Xander Schauffele+900
Ludvig Aberg+1000
Justin Thomas+1100
Joaquin Niemann+1400
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Scottie Scheffler+275
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Joaquin Niemann+3500
Shane Lowry+3500
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Scottie Scheffler+400
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Jon Rahm+1600
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Justin Suh wins Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance, sweeps No. 1 rankings for added PGA TOUR benefitsJustin Suh wins Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance, sweeps No. 1 rankings for added PGA TOUR benefits

NEWBURGH, Indiana – Justin Suh closed out his first PGA TOUR-sanctioned victory with a 4-under 68 in the final round of the 2022 season-ending Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance. Suh made just three bogeys all week at Victoria National Golf Club, the fewest scores of bogey or worse by any player in the field, and finished at 21-under par, two strokes ahead of Austin Eckroat, who was among the 25 players awarded PGA TOUR cards via The Finals 25. By virtue of the victory and the 1,000 points awarded, Suh finished No. 1 on both the Korn Ferry Tour Finals Eligibility Points List and the season-long Korn Ferry Tour Eligibility Points List. As a result of sweeping the No. 1 rankings, Suh will have fully exempt status for the 2022-23 PGA TOUR season, an exemption for the 2023 PLAYERS Championship and, for the first time in history, an exemption for the 2023 U.S. Open. Suh joins world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler (2019) and PGA TOUR winner Chesson Hadley (2017) as the only players in history to win both points lists. “My game has progressed so much over the course of the year and it feels extremely gratifying that it paid off,” Suh said. “I wasn’t really thinking about the overall season title. I wanted to win this event, especially since it’s the last Korn Ferry (Tour) event. I knew I could win out here. I’ve been close so many times. To put it all together, it feels great. “It’s one of the most important weeks of the year. I know it’s a lot of stress for guys fighting to get their (PGA) TOUR cards, but it’s an exciting week. I’m just really happy a couple of my friends got in.” Suh carried a one-stroke lead into the final round and maintained the outright lead for the majority of the day. The San Jose, California native birdied the par-4 fourth, bogeyed the par-3 seventh and immediately bounced back with a birdie at the par-4 eighth to turn at 1-under par. Suh birdied two of the first three holes on the back – the par-5 10th and par-4 12th – and put extra distance between he and Eckroat with a birdie at the par-5 15th. “After I birdied No. 12, I felt pretty good there,” Suh said. “It was a big par save on No. 14 and birdie on No. 15. I saw Tano (Goya)’s name at No. 25 on No. 15 and I was nervous for him because he just made a bogey on No. 12 and I knew he was on the bubble. Super happy for him. It was awesome to see him finish.” Goya, who played alongside Suh and Nicholas Lindheim in the final group Sunday, and eventually held on for his first PGA TOUR card as he played the final six holes at 1-under par. Another central figure of drama Sunday afternoon was Kyle Westmoreland, who played collegiately at the United States Air Force Academy and attained the rank of captain as he served a five-year stint with the United States Air Force after graduation. Westmoreland was anywhere from No. 23 to No. 26 on the Korn Ferry Tour Finals Eligibility Points List after he finished his round with a birdie at the par-5 ninth. After a relatively lengthy wait, Westmoreland finished No. 25 and became the first Air Force Academy graduate to earn a PGA TOUR card. The first man out of The Finals 25 was Joey Garber, who double bogeyed the par-4 14th but closed with four consecutive birdies for a chance at a return to the PGA TOUR. Garber signed his scorecard as the No. 25 players on The Finals 25, but Nicolas Echavarria’s bogey-free 6-under 66, highlighted by birdies on the par-5 15th and par-4 17th, ultimately knocked Garber out. The 2023 Korn Ferry Tour schedule will be announced Tuesday, October 4.

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Power Rankings: Valero Texas OpenPower Rankings: Valero Texas Open

The second half of the 2017-18 PGA TOUR season opens with one of the toughest tests on the schedule. The AT&T Oaks Course at TPC San Antonio hosts the Valero Texas Open. Hard-track specialist Kevin Chappell returns to defend his breakthrough title. His 12-under 276 on the stock par 72 is tied for the third-lowest aggregate among the eight champions since the course debuted in 2010. Scroll past the ranking for much more on TPC San Antonio and how Chappell solved, er, survived it. POWER RANKINGS: VALERO TEXAS OPEN RANK PLAYER COMMENT The tournament’s all-time earnings leader is 8-for-8 with a win (2016), a T2 (2011), a T3 (2013) and four more top 15s at TPC San Antonio. Logged top 25s in four of last six starts. The 2011 winner has added three top 15s since that breakthrough. Ranks eighth in GIR, 11th in birdies-or-better and T19 in par-5 scoring. Four top 20s in last seven starts. Look out now. He tends to ride a heater. Found some magic with the flat stick at Harbour Town and finished T5. Recorded top fives at TPC San Antonio in 2013, 2015 and 2016. Cooled in last three months, but only relatively speaking. A force at TPC San Antonio where he’s 4-for-4 with no worse than T22 (2010) and a scoring average of 71.25. First visit since 2015. Converted on converging trends here last year. Experiencing duties as a first-time defending champ this week and enters a bit cold, but his tee-to-green game is too good to ignore. Continues to sizzle. T3 at Harbour Town was fifth top 20 in last nine starts. Making fourth trip to TPC San Antonio. Sixth on TOUR in strokes gained: tee-to-green and T19 in par-5 scoring. The course horse hasn’t missed an edition. He has four top 10s (and a T15), including in each of the last three. The course design rewards the native Texan’s confident tee ball. Top 20s in both prior visits to TPC San Antonio (2012, 2017). 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Currently 10th on the PGA TOUR in the stat. Front-loaded at Harbour Town but still finished T23. Inconsistent tee-to-green game hasn’t been an issue at TPC San Antonio where he placed fourth in 2011 and T25 in 2016. In the wind (at times) and on tough tracks, he’s gone T16-T13-T8 from Copperhead to Corales to Houston. It makes sense given his roots in Texas and Oklahoma. T42 here in 2016. Zach Johnson, Xander Schauffele and former champions Adam Scott (2010) and Jimmy Walker (2015) will be among the notables reviewed in Tuesday’s Fantasy Insider. The annual irony of the Valero Texas Open is that the incredible charity for which the tournament is known – $11 million was raised last year alone – doesn’t extend inside the ropes. Thanks in part to the ubiquitous winds of south Texas, par is a good score at TPC San Antonio, which tips at 7,435 yards. Last year’s field averaged 72.853 and it still didn’t score high enough to rank inside the top half of any of its first eight editions. The tournament’s co-leaders in bogey avoidance (Carl Pettersson and Kevin Tway) squared eight bogeys or worse, most for any pacesetters in the stat in any non-major since the 2016 Farmers Insurance Open (that included one round on an easier Torrey Pines North). The course relents – with due respect – off the tee. The challenge increases multi-fold on approach into greens that average 6,400 square feet. That’s a typical area for putting surfaces on the PGA TOUR, but designer Greg Norman infused undulations that shrink the overseeded bermudagrass landing areas into some of the most difficult targets of the season. Those hills and curves also defend against Stimpmeter readings of approximately 11 feet, which is lower than most other courses due to the winds. The 2017 field averaged 10.43 greens in regulation per round, third-lowest of any host course, so it’s not surprising that seven of the 12 golfers who finished inside the top 10 on the leaderboard ranked inside the top 10 in GIR for the week. The par 5s aren’t pushovers, either. They’re always among the most challenging groupings of any course. This is one of the areas that explains how Chappell prevailed. He went bogey-free 8 under to slot T3 in par-5 scoring average for the week. He also ranked third in greens hit and T10 in proximity, and he capitalized on his chances in finishing fourth in birdie-or-better percentages after hitting GIR. As usual, Mother Nature will play a role this week. Varied threats of rain and boomers are forecast for Friday and Saturday. Sustained winds of 15-20 mph will precede the front and reenter the picture on Sunday, which projects to be beautiful otherwise. Seasonable daytime highs in the upper 70s will assist cutting through humidity. 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