Russell Knox takes first-round lead at Mayakoba Golf Classic presented by UNIFIN

GERMANTOWN, Tenn. – It took three balls in the water and the worst putting round of Scottie Scheffler’s professional career for the top spot in the FedExCup to finally be up for grabs. RELATED: Leaderboard | Projected FedExCup standings Scheffler had put the the number one spot out of reach with his incredible stretch in the first half of the year. He’s led the TOUR’s season-long points race since winning four times in six starts, including the Masters, and most of those weeks he’s had a margin so large that it would take his closest pursuer multiple events to chase him down. The elevated points in the Playoffs, however, mean that we could have a new FedExCup leader for the first time since March, though it’s far from a certainty because of Scheffler’s success earlier this season. He missed the cut in the Playoffs opener, the FedEx St. Jude Championship, by just a single shot despite his struggles on the greens and finding some of the penalty areas that make TPC Southwind the annual site of the most water balls on TOUR. “Anytime you lose five strokes on the greens and still give yourself a chance to make the cut is pretty good,” Scheffler said Friday after signing for a 68, “because five shots is a lot.” It was Scheffler’s fourth missed cut of the season, matching his number of wins. He is still projected to hold the top spot in the FedExCup, however, because he entered the Playoffs with a 1,221-point lead over Cameron Smith. “I was practicing really hard at home, was playing really well and just showed up and had my worst putting day ever,” Scheffler said. “Golf kind of smacks you in the face sometimes.” Scheffler started his week by hitting his approach on TPC Southwind’s 10th hole to 4 feet. He missed the birdie putt, however. It was the start of a trend. He missed a 9-footer for birdie on the next hole, as well. Then he played the next three holes in 4 over, hitting two approach shots into the water. He made three birdies and no bogeys the rest of the way to salvage a 71 despite losing 4.6 strokes on the greens. He missed six putts inside 10 feet in the opening round, including three within 5 feet. Friday started promisingly with birdies on two of his first three holes, and he was still 1 under when he hit his approach to No. 9 into the lake fronting the green. Birdies at 14 and 15 pulled him within one of the cut line, but he missed an 8-foot birdie putt on 16 and 20-footers on the final two holes. Only 15 players arrived at TPC Southwind within 2,000 FedExCup points of Scheffler, the number of points awarded for a win this week. Six players who could pass Scheffler are inside the top 20 on the leaderboard, and within five shots of J.J. Spaun’s lead entering the weekend. Smith and Tony Finau are both three back and in a tie for fifth place. Finau is looking for his third consecutive win, while Smith is looking to add the FedExCup to his wins at THE PLAYERS and The Open. Sam Burns, Justin Thomas, Will Zalatoris and Matt Fitzpatrick are all five back and in a tie for 17th. Zalatoris’ 63 matched Friday’s low round. Only two of the 15 players who could pass Scheffler, No. 6 Rory McIlroy and 15th-ranked Jordan Spieth, missed the cut (Hideki Matsuyama, who’s 11th in the FedExCup, withdrew before the tournament began with a neck injury). McIlroy bogeyed his 18th hole Friday to also miss the cut by one. Spieth shot 74 on Friday and finished six outside of the cut line. Five winners in the FedExCup’s 15-year history failed to earn a point in the Playoffs opener. Justin Rose (2018), Jordan Spieth (2015) and Billy Horschel (2014) missed the cut. Jim Furyk was disqualified from the first Playoffs event in 2010 for missing his pro-am tee time after his cell phone lost power overnight and his alarm didn’t go off. Tiger Woods won the inaugural FedExCup after choosing to not play the first Playoffs event. NOTES: Anirban Lahiri missed the cut by one but is clinging to the 70th spot in the projected standings after entering the week at No. 63 in the standings. TOUR rookie Alex Smalley is in a similar position, sitting two ahead of Lahiri in the standings after also missing the cut by one. … The seasons are over for players who entered the week outside the top 70 in the FedExCup and missed the cut. Those players include Matthew NeSmith, who entered the week at No. 72; Nick Watney (No. 111); Puerto Rico Open champion Ryan Brehm (No. 117); former PLAYERS champion Webb Simpson (No. 122); former FedExCup champion Justin Rose (No. 94) and Stewart Cink (No. 115), who won twice last year. BMW BUBBLE WATCH Here are the players projected to move inside the top 70 of the FedExCup after the second round of the FedEx St. Jude Championship and advance to next week’s BMW Championship at Wilmington (Del.) Country Club: PROJCTED IN Adam Scott (No. 77, projected to 53): He’s T9 at 7-under 133 after making birdie on his final two holes Friday. A good finish not only would get him in the BMW but would clinch his Presidents Cup spot and keep Captain Trevor Immelman from needing to use a Captain’s Pick on him. Scott currently holds the eighth and final spot in the International Team standings; the top eight after the BMW qualify for the team. Ryan Palmer (No. 110, projected to 56): The veteran is seeking his 11th BMW appearance in the last 14 years. He is just three off the lead after shooting 65-67. Wyndham Clark (No. 79, projected to 62): Birdied his final three holes Friday to shoot second straight 67. He sits at 6 under as he seeks his first BMW start in three years. Andrew Putnam (No. 87, projected to 67): Former runner-up at TPC Southwind (2018 FedEx St. Jude Classic) is seeking first BMW start since 2019. PROJECTED OUT Cam Davis (No. 66, projected to 71): Got up-and-down on his final hole of the day to make the cut on the number and keep his BMW hopes alive. Brendon Todd (No. 68, projected to 72): Made three bogeys in his first six holes Friday, but played his last 12 holes in 4 under to make the cut and keep his Playoffs hopes alive. John Huh (No. 67, projected to 74): The runner-up at last week’s Wyndham Championship withdrew with a lower-back injury after shooting 40 on his first nine holes Friday. Lanto Griffin (No. 69, projected to 78): He is not in the field after having back surgery earlier this year.

Click here to read the full article…

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — You can never relax at TPC Sawgrass. The ultimate risk-reward course can give up low numbers, but if you let your guard down, it can bite you on the backside very quickly. Jason Day won THE PLAYERS Championship in 2016. He just won last week at the Wells Fargo Championship. But the Australian knows he cannot afford to rest on his laurels this week. He holds a piece of the course record with his opening round 9-under 63 from 2016. But he also has shot 80 and 81 on occasions during his seven starts at THE PLAYERS. “You can get on the wrong side of it easily and rack up a really big number,â€� Day said. “If you are playing well and driving it well you can give yourself a lot of opportunities but if you are not mentally sharp and spray it … the greens are so firm, there are a lot of shaved areas and the grain makes chipping very difficult, so it can certainly go south.â€� Like it did for Jon Rahm when he made his TPC Sawgrass debut last year. The Spanish star opened with a 68 and followed with a solid 72 to enter the weekend inside the top 10. Come Saturday, he shot 82 to miss the secondary cut. “It’s a test, and that’s something that I had to learn last year when on Saturday, I went a little more aggressive than maybe I should have and ended up making more bogeys than I really wanted to,â€� Rahm said. “(I learned) a lot of patience, stick to the strategy, and sometimes just to know that having a longer iron out of the fairway might be better than having a wedge out of the rough.â€� Patience does appear to be key. So much so that Jordan Spieth has finally convinced himself he needs more of it. He finished T4 in his PLAYERS debut in 2014, and was bogey-free for his first 58 holes that week, setting a standard in his mind he now sees as unreasonable with the benefit of hindsight … along with the fact that he’s missed the cut in his ensuing three starts. “This is not a place to go out and try and force birdies, and I think that’s kind of where I’ve gone the last few years that’s got me in trouble,â€� Spieth admitted. “The first year I played here, I almost won it, and so I just kind of assumed that it would come easy to me.â€� This year Spieth declared he will stick to a game plan just to get himself to the weekend and have a chance. Reigning FedExCup champion and current points leader Justin Thomas has shot 65 twice at TPC Sawgrass. He also has shot 75 twice and bombed out last year with a Saturday 79. Thomas says the beauty of the course and the tournament is that the best player of the week wins. You might think that is true every week – but often big-name guys can win without their best stuff. TPC Sawgrass, however, doesn’t allow this. The windows players must find with their shots are small. “It’s a shot-maker’s course,â€� Thomas said. “I think you look at the list of winners here, and it’s all over the place. You have some guys, some of the best players in the world, you have some guys that maybe haven’t had the same amount of success as the top players, but it truly is whoever is playing the best. “You have to be in total control of your ball. You have to be working it one way off the tee, working it another way into the green, have your distances down to where you’re putting from the right spots. You can’t short-side yourself. You have to be good around the greens and around the par-5s in two. It really is a total package golf course.â€� Someone is going to go low this week. Someone is going to do the opposite. Finding out who is the fun part.

Click here to read the full article…

McIlroy to defend FedEx Cup title

Click here to read the full article…