Sleepers: WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational

CHICAGO, Ill. – So far, so good for Phil Mickelson. Mickelson has won the TOUR Championship at East Lake twice (2000, 2009) but if he is to make it a third time he must first negotiate his way into the FedExCup top 30 at the BMW Championship. With an opening 5-under 66 leaving him tied 10th and just four off the lead at Conway Farms the veteran has put himself inside the projected top 30. Now he has to stay there. Mickelson, who found form in Boston two weeks ago with a T6 finish, started 36th and now projects to 29th. It’s been a frustrating year for the Hall-of-Famer who feels his form hasn’t translated to good scores. “I don’t know if validation would be the word I would use. Certainly encouragement and it would be a real positive given the lack of results,â€� Mickelson said when asked if a berth at East Lake would validate his year. “If you watch on the range and through the round it looks better than the score is. Now the score in the last five rounds have matched up. So, to make it into East Lake would be great.â€� Mickelson, who suffers from arthritis, has recently revealed a tweak in his medications and how he deals with it have helped unclog his mental game. The 47-year-old is able to focus more, particularly on the greens. He was 10th in strokes gained: putting in the opening round. “I was able to get my energy back up, get my focus back up and I think going bogey-free it shows that I’m much more in tune with each shot and really only hit one or two tee shots that I wasn’t happy with and then from there was able to recover and play a good, solid round,â€� he explained. “You have to be able to get connected to the hole (when putting) so that no matter how perfect the stroke is if you don’t tie in the speed with the line that you’ve chosen and get it connected to the hole you’re not going to make putts. “And that’s one of the things I’ve really struggled with on the greens is getting connected to the hole.â€� BUBBLE WATCH Here are the players who are projected to move inside and outside the top 30 that will advance to the final leg of the FedExCup Playoffs, the TOUR Championship. QUOTE OF THE DAY We have so much to play for every week but especially in these FedExCup Playoffs. All of a sudden you have a really good week, you could legitimately have a chance of winning the FedExCup. TOP 5 WATCH The Top 5 players entering the TOUR Championship will control their own destiny at East Lake. Here’s a look at how the current top 5 fared Thursday at the BMW Championship. 1. Jordan Spieth (65). Needed just 24 putts in a solid bogey-free 65. Spieth is protecting his top spot at the moment nicely. Projected first. 2. Justin Thomas (67). Bounced back from a double bogey to stay in contention for another Playoff win. Projected to second. 3. Dustin Johnson (71). Scrappy opening but Johnson showed character after falling to 3-over through opening six holes. Work to do from here but remains projected third. 4. Hideki Matsuyama (72). The Playoffs have not been too friendly to Matsuyama thus far. A tough day with the putter left him floundering. Projected to fifth. 5. Jon Rahm (69). Looked likely to make a surge after three straight birdies to close front nine. But an even par back nine stalled his push. Projected to sixth. FEDEXCUP NOTES • Danny Lee’s season officially ended on Thursday after the Kiwi was forced to withdraw early in his round with a lower back injury. Lee tried to get treatment on the course to continue but was unable to power on. At 69th in the FedExCup entering the week he will not advance to the TOUR Championship. • Team USA could have an early “winâ€� in the Presidents Cup with Phil Mickelson projected inside the top 30 and Louis Oosthuizen projected out. The TOUR Championship represents another competitive week to keep the game in sync. Mickelson was a captain’s pick for the U.S. team while Oosthuizen is a member of the Internationals. As it stands all 12 USA members project inside the Top 30 now. Just 5 Internationals project there. “To make it into East Lake would be great and also great to play the week before the Presidents Cup and help me keep my games sharp,â€� Mickelson said. • Jason Day, the winner at Conway Farms in 2015, came in ranked 28th and in danger of missing Atlanta. A 7-under 64 to be tied second projects him inside the top 10. • Charley Hoffman continues to flirt with wins. His 64 left him tied second and projected to 8th in the FedExCup standings. He and Paul Casey (projected 9th) remain the highest players without victories this season. • Marc Leishman started the week ranked 7th in the FedExCup and, after his opening 62, projects into the all-important top 5 at 4th. But he needs to remain in the top 2 to keep his spot, such is the impressive seasons of those above thus far. • The biggest potential mover of the week is Jamie Lovemark. At T2 after his -7 64 Lovemark projects up 39 spots from 58th to 19th.

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ST. ANDREWS, Scotland – Cameron Smith had just given up his 36-hole lead at The 150th Open. It was time for his caddie, Sam Pinfold, to give a pep talk and help turn the tide. When Pinfold was finished, Smith smiled at his good friend and, without skipping a beat, replied, “Three or four back, … don’t worry. … We needed to give them a head start anyway.” RELATED: What’s in Smith’s bag? | Final leaderboard This is the confidence of the young Australian who produced a stunning 64 on Sunday to win The Open, becoming just the fifth Australian to win the Claret Jug and first since 1993. His first major triumph added to wins earlier this year at THE PLAYERS and Sentry Tournament of Champions. He’s moved to No. 2 in both the FedExCup and world ranking in a year that saw him become the only player other than Jack Nicklaus in 1978 to win THE PLAYERS and The Open in the same year. In his Sentry win in January, Smith set the TOUR record for lowest score in relation to par, shooting 34 under. At St. Andrews, he matched that mark for majors and recorded the lowest score ever shot in an Open at St. Andrews, a 20-under 268. And he closed with a remarkable 30 on the back nine, the lowest ever shot by an Open champion. But back to Smith’s joke. It was a light-hearted response. But there was some wisdom hidden inside it. Smith is – with all due respect – like a mongrel dog fighting over the first bone he’s seen in a month. He’s the ultimate underdog, determined to prove doubters wrong. Starting Sunday four shots off the lead was enough of a challenge. The fact one of the leaders was Rory McIlroy, Great Britain’s great hope who the crowds were eager to coronate, was a red rag to a bull. Smith is from Queensland – the northeastern state in Australia known for its beautiful beaches, the Great Barrier Reef, and an ethos of never-say-die toughness. That determination is born out of Smith’s favorite sport other than golf – rugby league – where the Queensland Maroons face the powerhouse New South Wales Blues three times a year in an epic and brutal series of games called State of Origin. It’s tribal. Queensland is known for often winning against the odds. It has a smaller talent pool to draw from, yet somehow rises above itself when putting on the jersey. One State of Origin game fell on The Open’s eve, and Smith insisted on playing his last nine-hole practice round early in the morning so he could stream the match on his phone at St. Andrews. The Maroons, missing three key players because of COVID and injuries, were underdogs. Then, in a frenetic opening few minutes of the game they lost two more to concussion. Despite the obstacles, they won 22-12. Pinfold confirmed Smith “drew a lot from that.” “Never a doubt,” Smith joked about the match at his pre-tournament press conference afterwards. “It’s just another example of the Queensland spirit. I’ll be thinking of that this week for sure.” The underdog emerged on Sunday at the Old Course. Smith scripted a maroon shirt ahead of his attempt to chase down the local favorite. After a solid 34 on the front nine, Smith looked up to see he’d only clawed back one shot on McIlroy. The time had come to put up or shut up. “You’ve got to try and win. That’s what we’re all here to do. I really needed to make something happen,” said Smith, whose gallery included former tennis star Ash Barty and two-time Moto GP champion Casey Stoner. And so Smith went to work. He nearly drove the par-4 10th to make the first of five straight birdies that put him one ahead of McIlroy. The best one came at the 13th – a hole that had nearly ended his chances a day earlier. “Those guys are great players. They weren’t going to give it to me. I had to take it,” Smith added. “It was a good thing that I was behind. My mindset would have been a touch different coming in, especially on that back nine, if I was ahead.” “My second shot into 13 was really when I thought that we can win this thing.” Pinfold also caught some flak about Saturday’s double bogey on 13. Many suggested he should have called Smith off a risky shot where he attempted to hit his ball while standing in a bunker with the ball above his feet. That shot sailed into a gorse bush, resulting in a double-bogey. “You don’t mess with a confident player with his skill level,” Pinfold explained. “I’m just so proud of him. His game plan was awesome; he was just really confident and he’s got so much belief it makes my job easy. “I don’t have to think about a second option, it’s just what’s the best shot, what’s the best option, then point, shoot and go. He just has the balls and courage to stand up and do it.” Another of those moments came Sunday at the infamous Road Hole, which ranks as the TOUR’s toughest each time The Open comes to St. Andrews. Smith’s approach came up short, and the hole’s famous greenside bunker stood between his ball and his target. Smith calmly putted his ball up the slope against the edge of the trap, then buried the 10-foot par putt. When he calmly birdied the last to post 20 under, one shot better than playing partner Cameron Young, only a McIlroy eagle could beat him. But the four-time major winner failed to chip in from just short of the green and victory was secured. “I feel like I can’t breathe,” he said. “These last four or five holes aren’t easy around here, especially with the wind up off the left. I’m just really proud of how I knuckled down today and managed to get it done.” “To win an Open Championship in itself is probably going to be a golfer’s highlight in their career. To do it around St. Andrews, I think is just unbelievable. This place is so cool.” Making birdie on the first five holes of the back nine was parallel to how he won THE PLAYERS earlier this year. He birdied the first four holes of TPC Sawgrass’ back nine en route to that win. “He loves to fight,” Pinfold said. “Put him in a fight, three or four back, and he’s going to step up his game and go for it.” Another celebration, like the one that followed his PLAYERS win, is expected. “I’m definitely going to find out how many beers fit in this thing,” he said about the Claret Jug. “I’m going to guess two, two cans of beer. … I’ll probably have about 20 Claret Jugs.” He certainly earned it.

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John Daly (knee) WDs from Champions event

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