Round 1: Casey leads, Woods in hunt as field plays catch-up

PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico – Aaron Wise wanted a fresh start on the greens at the end of last season, and thanks to an old friend, he got just that. Wise, who shot a 1-under 70 on Friday at the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba, began wielding a long putter at last season’s Barracuda Championship and has continued to use it through the early part of 2021-22. The putter itself (an older TaylorMade Ghost model) belonged to his University of Oregon coach, Casey Martin. Wise has kept it since college – he used it “a little bit” back then, he said – but never used it on TOUR. He admitted he was “putting bad” near the end of last season and wanted to try something different as he entered the FedExCup playoffs. “It was one of those things that I had tried before and I kind of forgot about it,” said Wise. “I thought it might be worth a shot.” Wise was 174th in Strokes Gained: Putting last season but has improved to 83rd in the same category through three events this season. He has notched top-10 finishes in his last two starts. The 25-year-old opened his week at El Camaleón Mayakoba Golf Course with an 8-under 63 – the same score he shot to close out 2020 at Mayakoba – and needed only 23 putts on Thursday. On Friday he took only 25 swipes, but said he struggled off the tee. “I just didn’t hit it quite as well off the tee (as Thursday) which hindered my iron shots,” said Wise. “But I felt like I chipped amazing, and I putted pretty well again and kept myself in it.” Wise is just five shots back of the 36-hole lead held by Matthew Wolff as he looks for another solid result to kickstart 2021-22. And, he said, his putter change is a big reason for that. “I putted bad for long enough that maybe it was getting in my head a little bit, and this was just a fresh start. I hadn’t missed any putts with it yet,” said Wise with a laugh. “I started on neutral ground, and I started to build confidence from there.”

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Welcome to Numbers to Know, where we’ll take a look a closer look at Justin Thomas’ victory in the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational. This was Thomas’ 13th career victory and second World Golf Championships title. 1. BETTER BY THE DOZEN: Twelve of Thomas’ 13 wins have come in the past four seasons. No one else is close to him in that span. 2. COMEBACK TRAIL: Thomas started the final round in fifth place, four shots behind 54-hole leader Brendon Todd. Thomas shot 65 on Sunday, the second-lowest round of the day, to win by three shots. It was the biggest comeback of his career. He’s held the 54-hole lead in eight of his wins, and this was just the second time he’s won when trailing by more than two shots entering the final round. The four-shot deficit he overcame Sunday matched the largest of his career. He started the final round in fifth place, his lowest leaderboard position entering the final round of any of his wins. “It was a hard-fought day, but it meant a lot … how we did it, being four behind to start the day,” Thomas said. “I haven’t exactly played well coming from behind in the past and I feel like I learned a lot from that.” 3. HAT TRICK: This was Thomas’ third win of the season. He’s now collected three or more wins in three of the past four seasons (2017, 2018, 2020). Since 1983, only Tiger Woods has had more seasons with three-plus wins before turning 28. Thomas’ three seasons of three-plus wins also are the fourth-most since 1990. The only players with more? Woods (13), Phil Mickelson (5) and Vijay Singh (4). And Thomas is only 27 years old, with plenty of time to add more. 4. SOLID APPROACH: Brooks Koepka may have fallen short Sunday, but he showed promising signs as he goes for the three-peat at the PGA Championship. Koepka led the St. Jude field in greens hit and Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green. This was the third time in Koepka’s career that he led the field in Strokes Gained: Approach. The other two times were majors. This was Koepka’ best performance in Strokes Gained: Approach since his win in last year’s PGA Championship. 5. ON A ROLL: Matthew Fitzpatrick and Bryson DeChambeau finished 1-2 in Strokes Gained: Putting, which should be no surprise. They’ve been among the TOUR’s top putters since the season resumed. Fitzpatrick finished sixth at TPC Southwind, his second consecutive top-10. He’s finished T32 or better in five of his last six starts. He’s also finished in the top five in Strokes Gained: Putting four times since the season resumed. DeChambeau, on the other hand, finished T30 at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude. This came on the heels of a missed cut at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide, which ended his streak of seven consecutive top-10s.

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For the first time, the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship will offer full FedExCup points to the winner. The TOUR's stop in the Dominican Republic has continued to move up in stature since it debuted on the Korn Ferry Tour schedule in 2016. Graeme McDowell is back to defend his title from 2019 - his first TOUR victory in nearly five years. RELATED: Inside the Field | McDowell returns to winner’s circle FIELD NOTES: Will Zalatoris, who is tops on the Korn Ferry Tour's Points List and made the cut in the U.S. Open, is in the field on a sponsor exemption. Zalatoris is hitting a KFT-leading 81% of his greens this season. He has 11 straight top-20s on that circuit, the longest streak in KFT history... Past FedExCup champion Henrik Stenson makes his debut in the Dominican ... Graeme McDowell looks to become the first golfer to defend his title at Corales … The three other past champions - Brice Garnett, Nate Lashley and Dominic Bozzelli (the latter two were winners when the event was on the Korn Ferry Tour) will look to reclaim some Caribbean magic ... 18-year-old Akshay Bhatia will tee it up at Corales after his top-10 at the Safeway Open. He was the youngest player to finish in the top 10 of a stroke-play event on the PGA TOUR since Justin Rose at the 1998 Open Championship ... Rafa Campos - from nearby Puerto Rico - will be in the field. He teed it up at the Safeway Open for his first TOUR start since January because of injury ... Corales club pro Julio Santos will lead a nice contingent of Dominican golfers in the field. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 500 FedExCup points. COURSE: Puntacana Resort & Club (Corales Golf Course), par 72, 7,666 yards (yardage subject to change). The Tom Fazio design from 2008 is a beautiful beast, culminating in the final three-hole stretch dubbed "The Devil's Elbow" with a dramatic forced carry over the Bay of Corales on 18. The front nine also wraps up along the coastline. While fairly open off the tee, when the wind blows it's difficult to nail down yardages into the difficult green complexes. STORYLINES: The event started as a Korn Ferry Tour event before becoming an opposite-field event in 2018. Now it offers full FedExCup points to the winner ... The Corales course is one of the longest the TOUR plays every season ... The event was originally scheduled for March 23-29 but was moved due to COVID-19 ... Mackenzie Hughes, who finished 14th on the FedExCup standings last season, will look to improve on his T2 from a year ago at Corales. He's the highest-ranked finisher from the 2019-20 FedExCup in the field. 72-HOLE RECORD: 264, Dominic Bozzelli (2016 Korn Ferry Tour). As PGA TOUR event: 270, Brice Garnett (2018), Graeme McDowell (2019). 18-HOLE RECORD: 62, Stephan Jaeger (2nd round, 2016 Korn Ferry Tour), Scott Harrington (2nd round, 2016 Korn Ferry Tour), Alexandre Rocha (3rd round, 2016 Korn Ferry Tour). As PGA TOUR event: 63, Brice Garnett (1st round, 2018), Chip McDaniel (4th round, 2019). LAST TIME: After struggling to an opening-round 73 Graeme McDowell's putter heated up through the weekend (he took only 20 putts on Saturday) and he captured his first PGA TOUR win since 2015. McDowell topped Mackenzie Hughes and Chris Stroud by one shot after a final-round 69 that included a key birdie on the penultimate hole. His birdie on the par-3 17th to Stroud's bogey was the late-round swing McDowell needed. Jonathan Byrd finished fourth, while Kelly Kraft and Monday qualifier Chip McDaniel rounded out the top five. HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday-Friday, 3 p.m.-6 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday-Sunday, 3 p.m.-6 p.m. (NBC) Radio: Thursday-Friday, 12 p.m.-6 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, 1 p.m.-6 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio).

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