Snedeker goes wire-to-wire at Wyndham Championship

PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico - During the 2020 FedExCup Playoffs, Tony Finau began "messing around" with a new shaft placement on his Piretti Elite putter, as a training aid to help combat a tendency of missing left on right-to-left putts. Utilizing the same putter head, the shaft adjustment increases the loft from 3 to 4 degrees, with the shaft slightly back of the head. RELATED: Full leaderboard This week, Finau decided to put the once-training aid into play, and it's paying dividends. Finau has opened the Mayakoba Golf Classic presented by UNIFIN in rounds of 67-66, sharing the lead at 9-under through the morning wave at El Camaleon GC. The Utah native has hit just 22 of 36 greens in regulation - ranking in the back half of the field - but has moved into contention via up-and-down prowess, as well as maximizing birdie opportunities. He's averaging 1.5 putts per green in regulation, and he has recorded just three bogeys through 36 holes. "It's always nice to see the ball go in," said Finau after signing his scorecard early Friday afternoon. "I've had a lot of one-putts this week, and a lot of great par-saves. I think that's been the story for me these first couple of days ... I'm making birdies on the holes that I'm hitting it close, but whenever I'm missing the green or out of play, I'm getting it up by the green and I'm getting it up-and-down. "So that's extremely important if you want to stay in contention." Finau admits he is "no stranger to changing the putting grip or changing the putter," and figured this week represented as good a time as any to change things up. The 31-year-old has recorded three top-five finishes since the Return to Golf in June, and is 4-for-4 in made cuts to begin the 2020-21 TOUR campaign, but said the putter "hadn't felt great for the past couple of months." He entered the Mayakoba Golf Classic at No. 95 this season in Strokes Gained: Putting, and believed there was ample room for improvement. "I think it's a good thing and a good look for me," said Finau. "I usually putt with a standard loft; this one has a little bit more. Same grip, but quite a different look." Same stroke, as well? "I'm not 100 percent sure," he said. "But I know I'm rolling it nicely, and that's the most important thing." Finau has utilized his Piretti Elite putter head since 2017, and he has maintained a consistent presence on leaderboards in that span. He has finished sixth, seventh and 17th in the past three FedExCups, respectively. But he's still chasing his first TOUR title since the 2016 Puerto Rico Open. With 40 top-10s on TOUR, the game is there. Sometimes the line between winning and a close call can be razor-thin. A new look with the flat stick could prove the difference. "I just felt like it was time for a change," Finau said. "My body feels good, my game feels good. Anytime I'm putting it nicely, I think that's always a great feeling. "I know the putter felt good in my hand, and anytime it missed, it hit the hole, so that's usually a good sign. I'll definitely take that confidence going into the weekend."

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AKRON, Ohio – Troy Merritt, who picked up his second PGA TOUR victory at the Barbasol Championship two weeks ago, underwent emergency surgery at Boise’s St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center on Friday to remove a potentially dangerous blood clot. He is still hoping to play in the 100th PGA Championship at Bellerive, and planned to get on a flight to St. Louis early Sunday morning. This, despite the fact that he probably won’t be well enough for practice rounds and will rely on his caddie, Wayne Birch, to scout the course. “I’ll go to the course; I might be able to hit a few putts,� Merritt, who played for Boise State, said by phone Saturday afternoon. “I’m not in pain, but I can’t move my arm very much.� Merritt had been dealing with swelling for a month, he said, but it would subside. This time, with Merritt taking the week off at home, it didn’t. The arm had expanded to twice its normal size and was turning purple when his wife, Courtney, a former BSU gymnast, suggested he get it looked at. The staff at the Idaho Sports Medicine Institute, which had treated Courtney for a torn calf muscle, sent him to St. Alphonsus for an ultrasound Friday morning, which showed the clot. “It was a quick progression from there,� Merritt said. He was whisked to the emergency room, given an IV line and supplemental oxygen, and was in and out of consciousness for two hours as doctors removed a roughly one-foot-long blood clot that started in his left biceps, came up through his arm pit, and went into his left pectoral muscle. Courtney drove him home Friday afternoon. Merritt’s first-round tee time for the PGA Championship next week is 8:51 a.m., with Ollie Schniederjans and club pro David Muttitt. If he can play, this would be Merritt’s third PGA and fifth major overall. He is 69th in the FedExCup, but was outside the top 125 before the Barbasol. “I would massage it and grit my teeth and try to get through it,� he said. “I didn’t know it was a blood clot. Competing, that’s what I know how to do. You play your best and fight through it. “It’s a tough decision when you don’t have job security,� he added. “I could hit a golf ball, so I kept playing. But this last week it swelled up so much so that there was no way I could’ve played, so I guess it was good timing to take the week off and get it taken care of.� Hours after the surgery, Merritt was joking with his agent, Peter Webb, and caddie, Birch. “I was asking Wayne and Webb how many guys have won on the PGA TOUR with a blood clot in their chest and arm,� Merritt said Saturday afternoon as he took a break from watching TV. He said he has no family history of blood clots, but was told they sometimes show up in young competitive athletes, baseball players more than golfers. He added that he’s getting used to his new regimen of blood-thinners, which he has to inject into his stomach twice a day. “You’re supposed to pinch yourself and shoot it into the fat, which is hard for me because I don’t have much of a stomach,� Merritt said. “I think pinching myself hurts more than the actual needle going in, and I am no fan of needles. I’ve got to go back in after the PGA and have more tests done and determine the actual cause so we can fix that and it doesn’t happen again. “There will be some type of program I have to do after that, for blood-thinners,� he added. In the wake of his first and only surgery, Merritt was feeling grateful to be on the other side. “I didn’t have time to think about it,� he said. “I was just trying to take it minute-by-minute, hour by hour. I was fortunate that everything went well and the arm responded. I had a good team of doctors working on me, doctors calling in favors to make sure I was seen as quickly as possible. “They said the plane ride shouldn’t be an issue,� he added, “and they gave me the go-ahead to compete. They just said to let the incision heal so I don’t rip it open.�

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Chesson Hadley needed golf’s version of a Hail Mary to keep his PGA TOUR card last season. He hopes he won’t need it this time around. “Last season was not a great ball-striking year, unfortunately,” said Hadley, 34, who will make his second start of the new season at the Sanderson Farms Championship in Jackson, Mississippi. While he probably won’t start in earnest until after Thanksgiving, the 2014 PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year is embarking on some changes to shore up those tee-to-green deficiencies. He began working with a new swing coach, Raleigh-based Chase Duncan, 37, in early August. “I like to try to keep it as simple as possible,” Duncan said. “Initially I’ll help him understand his current pattern, and we’ll work on the takeaway, getting a good feel for the clubface coming back. Not big changes. I’ve been impressed how much he likes to eat for such a skinny guy.” Indeed, Hadley’s feast-or-famine 2021 suggests he’s not far away. Although he ranked 169th in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green last season, he was 11th in SG: Putting and very nearly won. At the Palmetto Championship at Congaree in June, he was the 54-hole leader by four but bogeyed the last three holes to lose to young South African Garrick Higgo by a shot. “I can only imagine what it looked like on TV because it looked freakin’ awful from my view,” he said afterward. “I mean, I could barely keep it on the planet. That 8 iron from the fairway on that last hole is inexcusable. I just didn’t have it today.” He redeemed himself with a T15 at the Wyndham Championship in August. Having begun the tournament languishing at 132nd in the FedExCup, and tied for 51st place going into Sunday, he looked destined to miss the Playoffs and lose his TOUR card. The rest is flying-giraffe history: Hadley got off to a hot start, made his first-ever hole-in-one – leaping into the air with the grace of “a flying baby giraffe,” he said later – birdied his last hole, and shot a final-round 62. Would it be enough? All he could do now was wait. He was at a Bojangles drive-through (very on-brand) with his father, Russell, on their way back to Raleigh when the TOUR’s Tom Alter gave him the news. With Justin Rose’s three-putt bogey on 18, Hadley had slipped into the 125th spot to keep his card and get into the Playoffs lid-lifter, THE NORTHERN TRUST, by one FedExCup point. “I’ll remember everything about that day,” Hadley said. “I had my food in my lap and was waiting to eat until I had the full run-down. There was some screaming, some crying. It was great to have something to celebrate with my family because it didn’t feel like there was a lot to celebrate the last 18 months or so. We just opened a bottle of wine. “We have a couple that we’re really close with,” he continued, “and we had them over for a small celebration because I had to get on a plane for New York the next day.” He missed THE NORTHERN TRUST cut, ending his season, but he had spared himself a trip to Boise for the start of the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. He felt relief for himself, but also for his wife, Amanda. “And she was certainly emotional because she feels like she’s been all by herself while I’ve been trying to do all this,” he said. “I did not want to go to Boise for lots of reasons. That’s a long way away from home. My family wasn’t going to be able to come. My kids are starting school. “So Sunday was huge professionally,” he continued, “but it was also really big personally just because I could be with my family more. It was just such a relief.” Given some time to reflect, Hadley believes Congaree, in South Carolina, and Sedgefield, in North Carolina, were connected by more than a common state border. “I think one of the reasons why I did so well the Sunday at Wyndham is because of the Sunday at Congaree,” he said. “It had been a while since I had been in that position, and I didn’t handle Congaree the way I wanted to, but I learned a lot.” Specifically, Hadley was able to find a way to close even as he felt his command wobbling at the Wyndham. He was in the fifth fairway at Sedgefield when he told his caddie, David Cooke, that he was starting to see some squirrely shots and they needed to make a quick fix. “I was kind of hitting it a little bit loose,” Hadley said. “I told him, ‘I feel like we need to make an adjustment.’ Which is something I didn’t do at Congaree when it was getting crooked. So I just kind of did that, I put a little more left lean, a little more weight left, so that I wouldn’t fall back on it. It was the right adjustment because I hit some really good shots coming in.” Like the ace at the 160-yard, par-3 16th hole, with a 9-iron. Amazingly, it wasn’t just his first hole-in-one on TOUR, it was his first anywhere despite being an 11th-year pro. The trails of his previous few years were apparent during Hadley’s tearful post-round interview with CBS’s Amanda Balionis. “I’m not just out here for fun,” he said. “This is my job and I love it and I care very deeply about it.” Then he made fun of himself for crying, and his giraffe jump. This week he returns to one of his favorite places on TOUR, the Country Club of Jackson, where he finished second behind Ryan Armour in 2017. That result that was sandwiched between a T3 at the Fortinet Championship and a T4 at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas. When he’s on top of his game, Hadley is very, very good. He’s working on it.

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