Scenarios for Wyndham Rewards Top 10

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Big round numbers were the hot topic of conversation as Phil Mickelson met the media before the Waste Management Phoenix Open on Wednesday. That, and a little, black scooter he was presented to mark his 30th start in the event, one of his two hometown tournaments. Mickelson, 48, first played here as an amateur sensation out of Arizona State in 1989, and has since won it three times (1996, 2005, 2013). 
“I just can’t believe that it’s been 30 years,â€� he said. “It just has gone by so fast.â€� Mickelson is coming off a T2 at the Desert Classic two weeks ago, when he flirted with a 59 but settled for a 60 in the first round. He is enjoying a mini-career revival, which he credits in part to increased swing speed after leading the field in driving distance (302.5 yards on all tee shots) in the desert. The gain has been surprising given that he’s the oldest player in many fields. He also has enjoyed an uptick in his short game. He was around the lead in Strokes Gained: Putting for much of last season, when he broke a nearly five-year win drought with his playoff victory over Justin Thomas at the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship. It was in the afterglow of that win, Mickelson’s 43rd, that he issued a brash prediction: Q. You’re seven away from 50 PGA TOUR wins. Do you think you can get there? MICKELSON: Oh, I will, I’ll get there. Q. When? MICKELSON: I don’t know. Seven more wins and I’ll be there. I don’t have the month or the time, but I will get there. Today, not quite one year later, he’s having second thoughts. Asked at TPC Scottsdale whether he’s still sure he’ll get to 50, he dialed it back. The reason: The rest of 2018 didn’t go as planned. 

“I’ve got to be honest in my assessment of winning seven more times — is that realisticâ€� he said. “It’s certainly my goal and something I’m striving for and yet I know it’s not going to be easy. I don’t have the same, hundred percent I’m going to do this thing. I’m a little more realistic, because I really thought I was going to pick of off two or three more at the end of the year and I played terrible.â€� He made it to the season-ending TOUR Championship, but ran out of gas and finished last, then had a forgettable Ryder Cup in France. The good news, he added, was that he had a productive off-season in which he added speed and distance by stabilizing his core and retraining “the kinematic sequence of my golf swing.â€� He also has begun seeing a new nutritionist. “I think that I’m ready to start playing some of my best golf again,â€� Mickelson said. “I’ve had a massive jump in speed, which is a big thing, especially if you hit it crooked. If you’re going to hit it crooked you better not be short. That’s hopefully going to lead, along with the way I putted the last few years, it’s hopefully going to lead to a special year.â€�

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HOUSTON — Tony Finau wants to end his big year in a big way, and he took a step Thursday by biding his time and delivering late birdies for a 5-under 65 that gave him a share of the lead in the Cadence Bank Houston Open. Finau used a 60-foot birdie putt on the par-3 second hole, his 11th of the round, to start a stretch of four birdies in five holes. He was tied for the lead with bogey-free Aaron Wise and Alex Noren of Sweden, who could use a big week in Houston to nail down a spot in the top 50 in the world as he tries to get a Masters invitation. Tyson Alexander also was at 5-under and drove into the left rough when the first round was suspended because of darkness. Alexander chose not to finish his round and will finish the 18th on Friday morning before starting his second round. The large group at 66 included Sanderson Farms winner Mackenzie Hughes of Canada and Keith Mitchell, who was poised to take the lead until his second shot into the par-5 16th went into the water and led to bogey. Finau won consecutive starts this summer in Minnesota and Detroit for his first season of multiple wins. He missed the cut last week in Mayakoba and wasn’t faring too well at Memorial Park, except that he knew the course was demanding from tee-to-green. “I knew the golf course — it’s a tough golf course to play,” Finau said. “You have to drive it in the fairway and your work’s not done. It’s hard to hit the greens. You know if you miss the green, it’s hard to get up-and-down, so I was just patient with myself. “I made a couple bombs, I think that kind of opened it up.” The biggest one was on No. 2, and with a breeze at his back, he had no trouble adding another birdie on the par-5 third. He hit a wedge to 4 feet on No. 5 and then holed a birdie putt from 12 feet on the next hole. Finau also finished with a bang, rolling in a 35-foot putt on the par-3 ninth. His big summer has Finau at No. 15 in the world ranking, courtesy of his big run through late July and early August. The TOUR has two tournaments left this year before resuming the season at Kapalua the first week of January. “The season that I’ve had this past season was very nice, but I want to go out in a good way and I want to finish the year strong,” Finau said. “And I think that’s what I’m looking for this week.” The top 50 in the world at the end of the year typically get Masters invitations, and Noren put himself into the mix with a runner-up finish in the Dunhill Links in Scotland. He came into the Houston Open at No. 50 and knew he had his work cut out for him. Noren tied for 42nd last week at Mayakoba on a tight course cut through the mangroves that requires more precision than power and a superb wedge game. Memorial Park has a lot more beef, and Noren wasn’t sure what to expect out of his game. “Last week was like medium to short course, a lot of wedges that you have to get close. Here is longer, you’ve got to hit fairways and you’ve got to hit greens,” Noren said. “So I was a little bit nervous coming into today. Didn’t feel great in practice, but found something and got the irons a lot better. Overall, I would have taken 65.” Wise ran off four straight birdies on the front nine and played bogey-free. His only win on the PGA TOUR so far was the AT&T Byron Nelson in the Dallas area. Is another title in Texas in the cards? “It would be good,” Wise said. “I don’t want to win them all in one state, but I’ll take two in Texas.” Memorial Park had plenty of bite. Masters champion Scottie Scheffler was 4 over through 10 holes in the morning when he salvaged a solid round with four birdies coming in for a 70. Scheffler can regain the No. 1 world ranking with a win. Sam Burns wasn’t so fortunate. He had eight bogeys and seven pars until making his first birdie on the par-5 16th and finishing with a 77.

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