Sources: Johnson to make trip after son’s birth

GREENSBORO, N.C. — Russell Henley shot 1-under 69 on Saturday to take a three-stroke lead in the Wyndham Championship and move a round away from his first PGA TOUR win in four years. Henley, who tied the lowest 36-hole score on TOUR this year, couldn’t keep up that pace at Sedgefield Country Club. Yet, he rolled in a 33-foot putt for eagle on the par-5 15th and went on to finish at 15-under 195 as he tries to win his fourth career title and first since the 2017 Houston Open. RELATED: Tee times moved up for final round Tyler McCumber, the son of 10-time TOUR winner Mark McCumber, shot a 66 and was at 12 under in second. He’s searching for his first win. The group of six four shots behind at 11 under included three FedExCup Playoff outsiders in Rory Sabbatini, Scott Piercy and Roger Sloan now on track to tee it up in the 125-man field for the postseason that starts next week at THE NORTHERN TRUST. Sabbatini, the Olympic silver medalist last month, has used his momentum from Tokyo to make a charge in the FedExCup standings. His 69 included a birdie on the 17th hole that moved him from outside — he began the week at No. 141 — to a projected place of No. 122. Piercy, too, continued his charge into the Playoffs with a 68. He was first man out at No. 126 when the week began. But his third straight round in in the 60s projected him to 93rd. Sloan also needed a big week to continue his season and he’s gotten it so far with a second straight 64 to move from 131st in the standings to No. 102. Others tied at 11 under were Branden Grace, Kevin Kisner and Kevin Na. Grace shot 64, Kisner 66 and Na 67. Former FedExCup champion Justin Rose, who started the week 138th in the standings, shot 69 after a bogey on the final hole. He’s 126th in the projections. There are no guarantees that current results mean anything come the next round — or next hole. Just ask Tyler Duncan, who made five birdies on his front nine to move up 61 spots to 101st. But Duncan played the back nine at 3 over for a 69 — and dropped to 150th by round’s end. It won’t be a normal final round either as the PGA TOUR will start earlier with the first golfers going off at 7 a.m. to beat expected bad weather later in the day. Golfers will also go off in threesomes and from the first and 10th tees. Henley, who entered at No. 46, was locked into the Playoffs long before this event began. He’s focused on finishing out the victory, something he could not do two months ago when he was in a three-way tie for the top after three rounds of the U.S. Open. Henley shot a final-round 76 at Torrey Pines to fall back. He looked as if he’d regained his form with his eagle on No. 15. But Henley missed a 13-foot par putt on the 18th to drop a shot. McCumber’s career best came this year with a second at the Corales Puntacana Resort and Club Championship in the Dominican Republic last September. He had missed his past six cuts before getting hot this week. “You’ve got to stay in the process and I feel like I’ve been doing that pretty well and getting rewarded for it through the first three rounds this week, so taking that momentum into tomorrow,” he said.

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New world No. 1 Jon Rahm calls it “busy.” Webb Simpson calls it “very strange.” Scott Van Pelt of ESPN, which will televise next week’s PGA Championship, calls it “a time of total disarray.” Call it the Crazy Eight. Starting with this week’s World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational in Memphis, the next eight weeks will determine the winner/s of a WGC, the FedExCup, and two majors. England’s Tommy Fleetwood is among the players who circled this stretch on their revised calendars, dropping in for last week’s 3M Open and committing to nine big weeks of golf through the U.S. Open at Winged Foot, Sept. 17-20. “I’m going to work hard and play hard and see how well we can do,” Fleetwood said. That’s a common sentiment on TOUR as players commence the biggest and most impactful stretch of golf this season, and maybe the biggest in years. FEDEX ST. JUDE INVITATIONAL: Featured Groups | Tee times | FedExCup standings Said Rahm from TPC Southwind: “It’s one of those situations where somebody could get hot and possibly run away with the World Golf Championship, majors, possibly the FedExCup. “… It will be a good time to start playing good golf,” he added. Rahm of course is already playing good golf, having won the recent Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide to take over world No. 1. He is eighth in the FedExCup, but volatility could be the rule for both metrics going forward. The winner at TPC Southwind this week will earn an elevated 550 FedEx points (up from the usual 500), while someone will bank 600 at the PGA Championship next week. The Official World Golf Ranking could feature shake-ups at the top, as well. According to Sports Betting News, FedExCup No. 1 Justin Thomas could return to world No. 1 with a win this week. So could reigning FedExCup champion Rory McIlroy, who lost the top spot to Rahm two weeks ago. “It’s extremely important,” Thomas said of the prospect of returning to world No. 1. “It’s never something that I won’t want to have and won’t be trying to get to if I’m not there. The thing about that is it’s not about getting there, it’s about how long can you stay there.” (Thomas, the 2017 FedExCup champion, was world No. 1 for four weeks in 2018.) How players handle this busy time will have a lot to say about that. Each of the eight weeks is of course important for its own sake, but it’s hard not to take in the bigger picture. Simpson spoke of how nice it will be to have “the best players in the world” at TPC Southwind since that will also be the case for the PGA at TPC Harding Park. (The 44 of the top 50 in the OWGR in Memphis this week is the most on TOUR since the 2019 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational.) Thomas, who will be attempting to join McIlroy and Tiger Woods as the only two-time winners of the FedExCup, name-dropped East Lake and the season-ending TOUR Championship (Sept. 4-7) even as he geared up for a run at another WGC title at TPC Southwind, where he finished T12 last year. “I find this place very similar to East Lake,” Thomas said, “to where if you drive it well, if you hit the fairways, it’s not a very difficult golf course. You have a pretty good amount of short irons and some wedges to where you can control your distance into the greens. Because it’s so important to be putting from below the hole or on the correct side.” As for the Crazy Eight, which will also decide the Wyndham Rewards Top 10, no one knows how things will go. Will one player get hot and take a big stack of chips? Will a star emerge? “I feel like it’s breakthrough season at a time of total disarray,” said ESPN’s Van Pelt. Fatigue could be a factor. Although one wonders how that’s possible after the TOUR’s three-month hiatus, there’s so much to play for, so many big events all crammed together, it could test the stamina of even the current wave of 20-something superstars. “Nothing special,” Rahm said of how he’ll handle so much golf. “Probably keep doing what I’ve been doing right now. I would say I’m out of quarantine, I’m in really good shape, so I feel physically and mentally strong enough to do what I need to do the next few weeks.” As for looking ahead, so much could happen. Too much. Do we even dare prognosticate? Curtis Strange, who will be calling next week’s PGA for ESPN from home in Morehead City, N.C., didn’t take a stab at where we’ll be in eight weeks. Nor did his colleague, Andy North. Instead, they, along with Van Pelt, credited the PGA TOUR and Commissioner Jay Monahan for bringing golf (and to some extent sports) back. “I hope it all goes through,” Strange said. “I hope the players stay disciplined … I hope that’s the storyline.” Settle in. It should be a wild ride.

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The Wyndham Championship isn’t part of the FedExCup Playoffs, but playoffs are as much about who survives and advances as who doesn’t. So, for many at Sedgefield Country Club this week, their personal playoffs begin now. A field of 156 is assembled in Greensboro, North Carolina, for the conclusion of the PGA TOUR’s regular season. Scroll past the projected contenders for a review of what’s at stake, how Sedgefield is expected to test and more. RELATED: How the field qualified | The First Look POWER RANKINGS: WYNDHAM CHAMPIONSHIP Rickie Fowler, Tommy Fleetwood, Lucas Glover, Francesco Molinari, Barracuda Championship winner Erik van Rooyen and defending champion Jim Herman will be among the notables reviewed in Tuesday’s Fantasy Insider. The Wyndham Championship has served as the anchor of the PGA TOUR regular season throughout the FedExCup era and Sedgefield CC has hosted since 2008. Because statuses for golfers will be subject to change at its conclusion, the gathering in Greensboro presents a little like the last day of high school. Some guys never will see each other again, for even a reunion must be earned. For most, it’ll preface a rebirth that results in a run at the FedExCup during the three-event Playoffs on deck, the Korn Ferry Tour Finals that’s contested concurrently, or perhaps a spot in the second stage of qualifying school to regain status on the KFT in 2022. Churn is the norm in the constant of the meritocracy. Leading the qualifiers for the Playoffs is the Comcast Business TOUR TOP 10. Of the 25 mathematically within reach to be rewarded, four are in the field at Sedgefield – Louis Oosthuizen (eighth in FedExCup points), Jason Kokrak (12th), Hideki Matsuyama (14th) and Patrick Reed (22nd). Of them, only Oosthuizen can stretch to No. 1. He cannot finish lower than 10th. Another impactful bubble hovers over Bo Hoag at 125th in points. From Sepp Straka at 105th through Rafael Campos at 151st, only Charles Howell III (137th) isn’t committed at Sedgefield. (CH3 is fully exempt through the 2021-22 season, so he forfeits only the chance to qualify for the 2021 Playoffs). Sedgefield is a stock par 70 measuring 7,131 yards. With no significant changes and with customarily favorable scoring conditions, it’ll play as the racetrack with which the entrants are familiar. Last year’s scoring average of 68.779 aligned with its recent history. Bermuda greens are ready to touch 12 feet on the Stimpmeter, but the daily threat for rain and increased chance of storms deeper into the tournament could impact that. The two-and-a-half-inch primary rough will be consistent. Wind will not be a factor, so every bit of the daytime highs in the low 90s will be felt before a relative cooling on Sunday. En route to the title last year, Jim Herman showcased the textbook formula for success in a shootout. He led the field in greens hit (63 of 72) and finished third in Strokes Gained: Putting, connecting on 14 tries outside 10 feet, tied for most in the field. He went 10-for-21 from 10-20 feet and ranked second in average distance of putts holed. Because the Wyndham Championship is the final stop before the Playoffs, all top 10s at Sedgefield will be eligible for entry into the Fortinet Championship on Sept. 16-19. ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE PGATOUR.COM’s Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton recaps and previews every tournament from numerous angles. Look for his following contributions as scheduled. MONDAY: Power Rankings TUESDAY*: Sleepers; Fantasy Insider SUNDAY: Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Medical Extensions, Rookie Watch * – Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, which also publishes on Tuesday.

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