Scheffler rallies, wins gold with final-round 62

THE OVERVIEW By Ben Everill, PGATOUR.COM For a fair chunk of Sunday at The Open Championship, it appeared Matt Kuchar was going to join the list of major champions. But as history shows, a late turnaround and blitz from Jordan Spieth snatched that dream away from the man they call ‘Kuch.’ So now this season becomes a very interesting one for the seven-time PGA TOUR winner, whose resume includes a signature win at the 2012 PLAYERS Championship. Kuchar will turn 40 in June and is coming off a season with nine top-10s. He has made the TOUR Championship the last eight seasons, finishing inside the top 20 of the FedExCup every year since he was runner up in 2010. He’s 11 of 11 when it comes to making the FedExCup Playoffs. Will he continue to be a factor against the greater depth and youth on TOUR or will things start to get harder for the smiling assassin? Statistically he remains far above average. Inside the top 70 in all Strokes Gained categories last season, including 16th overall. While he continues to putt well and drive the ball accurately, any perceived loss in distance will be overcome. Consistency has always been a hallmark of Kuchar’s game. Now he needs to take it to another level in the big weeks. Not much has to change – his game was good enough last season to finish inside the top-16 of all four majors, inside the top 5 in two of them – but after getting so close at Royal Birkdale last year, perhaps Kuchar will now turn disappointment into major victory. Click here to follow Ben on Twitter BY THE NUMBERS FEDEXCUP Current 2017-18 position: 107th Playoff appearances: 11 TOUR Championship appearances: 8 Best result: 2nd (2010) INSIGHTS FROM OUR INSIDERS PGATOUR.COM’s Insiders offer their expert views on what to expect from Matt Kuchar in 2018. TOUR INSIDER by Cameron Morfit The remarkably consistent Kuchar shows no signs of slowing down even at 39. Last season he was again deadly accurate off the tee (66 percent, ranking him 31st on TOUR), putted better than average, and registered his career-best finish in a major with an unforgettable runner-up to Jordan Spieth at the Open Championship. Kuchar has made every U.S. Presidents and Ryder Cup team since 2010, and will most likely keep on doing so for the foreseeable future, but whether this seven-time TOUR winner will finally add a major title to his resume remains an open question. Click here to follow Cameron on Twitter FANTASY INSIDER by Rob Bolton Just when you think that Father Time is applying pressure, he hangs up another quality performance. You want reliability? You got it. He’s competed in eight consecutive TOUR Championships. You want durability? Sure. Since 2011, he’s averaged more than 24 starts per season and hasn’t withdrawn during any. Quite simply, he’s an easy late first-rounder because he knows who he is and we know what he delivers. It’s hard to believe that the big 4-0 lingers on June 21, 2018, but it had to arrive at some point, it’s just that it won’t matter. Click here to follow Rob on Twitter EQUIPMENT INSIDER by Jonathan Wall Kuchar has anywhere from six to seven different equipment brands in the bag. Scaled back the amount of forward press in his stroke, which required Bettinardi to make a new KM2 D.A.A.S. putter with new loft and offset specs (5 degrees of loft and 1 shaft worth of offset). Currently carries three different wedge brands (Bridgestone, Callaway and Cleveland). Began using a new Bridgestone Tour B XS golf ball at the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational. Click here to follow Jonathan on Twitter STYLE INSIDER by Greg Monteforte Kuchar is a case study in how simple style tweaks can make a big impact. During the past couple of years, he has ditched the pleats and the mismatched hats and moved to flat front trousers and exotic skin belts. As a result, his looks are cleaner and more modern. The last piece of the fashion puzzle for Kuch is slimmer fitting shirts. Click here to follow Greg on Twitter

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ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – The Fourth of July now has a new significance for Brandt Snedeker. The holiday also marks when he was struck down by the pain that has sidelined him for the past seven months. “We were going to play golf. I went out there on the range and I couldn’t hit about five balls and I couldn’t breathe,� Snedeker said Monday on the practice putting green at Sea Island Golf Club, where he’ll make his first PGA TOUR since June. He decided last week to play the RSM Classic, which begins Thursday, to discern the status of his recovery from the sternum joint injury. He also is scheduled to play with Bubba Watson at the QBE Shootout on Dec. 8-10. “We got to the point where the doctors were like, ‘We need to figure out if we have this licked or if we need to do something different,’� said Snedeker, the 2012 FedExCup champion. “I’ve been playing at home, but there’s only so much I can do at home before I can see if I can handle five days in a row, uneven lies, rough, bunkers. I can do it fine at home, but out here it’s always a little bit different.� Snedeker is trying to avoid surgery, so he has spent the past seven months visiting doctors and trying a myriad of therapies to relieve the pain coming from his sternum, where a bone spur is pushing on his manubriosternal joint, which connects the upper and lower halves of the sternum. “I have a bone spur that has kind of caused the joint to separate and become unstable,� he said. “It makes me feel like I have a broken sternum.� He hasn’t played since finishing ninth in the U.S. Open and T14 in the following week’s Travelers Championship. He tried to play two of his favorite events, The Open Championship and Wyndham Championship, but had to withdraw from both. He didn’t touch a club for nearly 10 weeks after withdrawing from the Wyndham, where he earned his first TOUR title in 2007, in August. Rest was the first step in his recovery. He also has changed his workouts, his swing and his diet. He has tried to strengthen his chest and core to give the joint more stability. Working with instructor John Tillery, who may be best known for helping Kevin Kisner become a two-time TOUR winner, Snedeker has changed his address position and his pivot in order to take pressure off the joint. He also has eliminated sugar and carbohydrates as part of an anti-inflammatory diet, which he has called “miserable.� “I have some arthritis and inflammation in (the joint),� he said. “Anyone who has ever had arthritis or inflammation in a joint that you use knows it can be nagging and awful because the more you use it, the worse it gets. Unfortunately, that’s where mine has gotten to.� Snedeker said sternum joint injuries are often caused by high-impact sports like football and motocross. “They’d never seen one in a golfer,� he added. The injury doesn’t inhibit his daily activities, but the vibrations from hitting a golf ball cause pain. He said he feels pain before and after he plays, but that it subsides after he has warmed up. He played golf several days last week, but those were quick rounds played in a cart. He is curious to see how the joint will hold up during the slower pace of competitive rounds, when there is a longer wait between shots. If all goes well this week, Snedeker is hopeful that he can make his first start of 2018 at the CareerBuilder Challenge in La Quinta, California.

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