Rory McIlroy’s pro-am push at BMW Championship

GREENSBORO, N.C. — Brandt Snedeker couldn’t block out the buzz that surrounded his first-round 11-under 59 at the Wyndham Championship. He refocused just in time to reclaim the lead. Snedeker followed his historic opening score with a 67 on Friday to take a two-stroke lead into the weekend at the Wyndham Championship. A day after becoming the 10th player in PGA TOUR history to break 60, Snedeker moved to 14-under 126 halfway through the final PGA TOUR event before the FedExCup Playoffs. “You hear people telling you every two seconds, `Mr. 59,’ or saying how cool it was to watch it,” Snedeker said. “So, yes, totally on your mind.” D.A. Points shot a 64 to reach 12 under — one stroke ahead of C.T. Pan, who also had a 64. David Hearn, Peter Malnati, Keith Mitchell, Harris English, Brett Stegmaier and Sergio Garcia were 9 under. Snedeker, the 2012 FedExCup champion, won this tournament in 2007 before it moved across town to the par-70 Sedgefield Country Club. He had the tour’s first 59 of the year during the first round. But it wasn’t easy to follow a score like that. Of the nine previous players who have broken 60 on the TOUR, six had to play the next day and only one has shot better than 65 in that round: Justin Thomas, who had a 64 in the second round of last year’s Sony Open. “You can’t ignore it, you can’t try to forget about it,” Snedeker said. “Hardest thing is trying to get back into a rhythm. … Now I’m better equipped for the next time I shoot 59 and play the next day.” By the time Snedeker teed off Friday afternoon, that low score had held up for a one-stroke lead. It temporarily slipped away when he had three bogeys on the front nine. He reclaimed the lead late in his round with some nifty putting. He sank two putts longer than 30 feet, one for eagle on the par-5 15th and another for birdie on the par-4 16th, and wrapped up with the best two-round score at this tournament since Carl Pettersson’s 125 a decade ago. “When I finally convinced myself to hit a few putts, they started going in,” Snedeker said. “Over 72 holes, you’re going to have stretches where balls don’t go in the hole, you’ve got to be able to kind of overcome, be patient, wait for the long ones to fall, and luckily I made a couple coming down the stretch.” Points, who has made only one cut since January and failed to reach the weekend in 19 of his 24 tournaments this season, had a strong front nine with three birdies and an eagle on the par-5 fifth hole, where he sank a 40-foot putt. He has finished in the top 20 at this tournament twice since 2014, and after starting far off the bubble at No. 214 on the points list, could play his way into the FedExCup Playoffs this weekend. “Basically, I know this is possibly my last event of the year, so I haven’t been grinding really hard,” Points said. “It seems to be paying off.” Pan, a 26-year-old from Taiwan, had birdies on three of his final four holes to climb the leaderboard. He sank a 20-foot birdie putt on No. 17 and an 8-footer on the 18th to match the best round of his young career. He also shot 64s last year at the Travelers Championship and The RSM Classic. “I love this course,” Pan said, adding that his “trajectory tends to be lower than compared to other guys, so I think I have an advantage here.” Among the other highlights: Brian Gay had the day’s best round, a 63 tarnished only by a bogey on his final hole on which he missed a 4-foot par putt. And Mitchell opened with five consecutive birdies to briefly raise the possibility of a second sub-60 score in two days, before slipping back later in his round. “It’s definitely a different feeling,” Mitchell said. “But it’s a feeling you try to get comfortable with because you want to be in that zone.” A key subplot at Sedgefield every year is the push by bubble players to earn postseason spots. The top 125 players on the points list make the field for THE NORTHERN TRUST in New Jersey, and everyone from No. 122 to No. 132 is playing this weekend. Bill Haas, who at No. 150 is in danger of missing the FedExCup Playoffs for the first time, made the cut at 3 under. Garcia, at No. 131, also is trying to make it for the 12th straight year. Johnathan Byrd — who at No. 183 probably needs to win or finish alone in second place to earn enough points to qualify — remains in the mix at 8 under. “It’s kind of an easy mentality in a sense,” Byrd said. “Just got to play amazing or go home, or go to the (Web.com Tour) finals.”

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The 15th of 24 contributing events for PGA TOUR Champions One & Done presented by SERVPRO is this week’s Constellation SENIOR PLAYERS Championship. It begins on Thursday. Scroll for tournament notes, 23 notables and four wild cards from the field of 78 in Highland Park, Illinois. This isn’t complicated. In fact, I went back to review previous One & Done previews for the John Deere Classic so that I didn’t open with the same thought. If that’s not evidence of my confidence in Zach Johnson, we’re never going to understand each other. Steve Stricker is the all-time earnings leader and three-time champion at TPC Deere Run, but ZJ is one day from being exactly nine years younger, and that counts for something when you’re sizing up his equally impressive record in this tournament. Every time I see Johnson selected during another week – well, other than Colonial – I shake my head. But I don’t judge. You do you. I’ll be here waiting. If the 2012 champ isn’t available, pivot to Stricker and enjoy the week. Bryson DeChambeau is defending his first title. That would normally elicit pause among prospective investors, but the experience will be closer to the inside of the box than his frequency of going about his business on the outside. In other words, he’ll be fine. Like Xander Schauffele at last week’s A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier, DeChambeau has rapidly risen on the list of permanent class. Fire away if you’re keen. Gamers in pursuit are overdue to burn Joaquin Niemann. That’s an incredible (and accurate) assessment given the fact that he’s been a professional for fewer than three months. The same strategy can be applied to Chesson Hadley, who is still simmering and filling up the box score. A T25 at last year’s JDC doesn’t hurt, but he’s been reliable almost everywhere, anyway. Stalwarts Ryan Moore and Kyle Stanley are sporty foils if you’re looking for something just a little outside the focus. They present stronger as roster plays, but that’s the reason their ownership percentages should be low in the One & Done. Smart, safe contrarians they are. Like all of the aforementioned (sans Schauffele, who didn’t commit), Francesco Molinari and Austin Cook also are in my Power Rankings. However, both present as possibly looking ahead to The Open Championship. It’s never something that we can quantify or accuse beyond the general narrative, but there’s always a small grouping of concerns who usually look good on the eve of a major and who you shouldn’t burn in a One & Done now. Assuming two-man gamers lead off with one of the golfers already covered, fill the blank on the back end with Kevin Tway, Scott Brown, Chris Kirk or Wesley Bryan. FUTURE POSSIBILITIES NOTE: Select golfers committed to the tournament are listed alphabetically. Future tournaments are sorted chronologically and reflect previous success on the courses on which the tournaments will be held in 2017-18. The numerical values in parentheses represent the order of relative confidence of where to use each golfer if multiple sites are listed (e.g. 1 for strongest, 2 for next-strongest and so on). To present weighted confidence in real time, numerical values will not change all season no matter how many tournament remain listed for each golfer. All are pending golfer commitment. Bill Haas … Wyndham (2) Zach Johnson … John Deere (1); Open Championship (5); WGC-Bridgestone (6); TOUR Championship (8) Ryan Moore … John Deere (3); TOUR Championship (6) Scott Piercy … John Deere (6) CHAMPIONS ONE & DONE Constellation SENIOR PLAYERS Championship Exmoor Country Club in Highland Park, Illinois, is the host. Located north of Chicago, it’s a 122-year-old facility that has never hosted a professional event. The stock par 72 can stretch 7,149 yards. Scott McCarron is the defending champion. He ended Bernhard Langer’s string of three straight tournament titles, each on a different track. This is a 72-hole competition with 78 participants. There is no cut. With a purse of $2.8 million, it’s the third-most lucrative tournament on the schedule, but it’s the richest of the remaining 10 contributing to the fantasy game. The winner will pocket $420,000. FUTURE POSSIBILITIES NOTE: Select golfers committed to the tournament are listed alphabetically. Future tournaments are sorted chronologically and reflect previous success on the courses on which the tournaments will be held in 2018. The numerical values in parentheses represent the order of relative confidence of where to use each golfer if multiple sites are listed (e.g. 1 for strongest, 2 for next-strongest and so on). To present weighted confidence in real time, numerical values will not change all season no matter how many tournament remain listed for each golfer. All are pending golfer commitment. Stephen Ames … Boeing (2); Shaw (7) Joe Durant … SENIOR PLAYERS (1); 3M (6); DICK’S (12); Boeing (10); Shaw (11); PURE (3); SAS (13) David Frost … 3M (7); Boeing (5); Shaw (8); PURE (1) Fred Funk … Boeing (6); PURE (5) Doug Garwood … SAS (1) Paul Goydos … 3M (1; defending); DICK’S (3); SAS (5) Miguel Angel Jiménez … SENIOR PLAYERS (3); Senior Open Championship (4); 3M (9); Shaw (7); SAS (12) Brandt Jobe … SENIOR PLAYERS (1); 3M (5); Boeing (8) Jerry Kelly … Boeing (1; defending); Shaw (5); PURE (2); SAS (4) Bernhard Langer … Usable everywhere. Defending five titles. Tom Lehman … SAS (9) Jeff Maggert … Shaw (5) Billy Mayfair … Boeing (2); PURE (1) Scott McCarron … SENIOR PLAYERS (3; defending); Senior Open Championship (10); DICK’S (4; defending); Shaw (5; defending); PURE (8) Colin Montgomerie … SENIOR PLAYERS (2); Senior Open Championship (10); Shaw (4); PURE (7); SAS (3; defending) Tom Pernice, Jr. … Shaw (3); SAS (5) Kenny Perry … 3M (1); DICK’S (11); SAS (2) Gene Sauers … SENIOR PLAYERS (6); Boeing (1) Vijay Singh … Shaw (5); SAS (1) Kevin Sutherland … Usable everywhere. David Toms … Boeing (2); SAS (4) Kirk Triplett … SENIOR PLAYERS (1); Shaw (4) Duffy Waldorf … Shaw (5) WILD CARDS (short list of golfers not included above but on the rise or still building portfolios after recently turning 50): Bob Estes; Steve Flesch; Rocco Mediate; Scott Parel

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