Stuard among three tied atop Safeway Open

A rising Korn Ferry Tour star and the roommate of a TOUR rookie are among this week’s qualifiers for The RSM Classic in coastal Georgia. Akshay Bhatia (62), Bryson Nimmer (63), Brett Drewitt (65) and Conner Godsey (65) earned spots in the field at Sea Island GC via Monday’s four-spot qualifier at Brunswick CC. With his girlfriend Presleigh Schultz on the bag, Bhatia delivered a signature performance to earn a spot in this week’s field. The 20-year-old began the calendar year of competition with a win at the Korn Ferry Tour’s The Bahamas Great Exuma Classic at Sandals Emerald Bay in January, and he’ll aim to conclude the year with a bookend sterling showing. Temperatures hovered in the high 50s and low 60s Monday, with wind strength reaching double-digit mph, but Bhatia was up to the challenge. “I’ve done this Monday so many times, and today I just knew I was going to do it,” Bhatia said. “It was freezing, and for whatever reason, I always play well with (Presleigh) and I always feel super comfortable … Couldn’t really feel my hands, trying to stabilize the putter as much as I could. “I haven’t played much this offseason. Not to get my card last year was tough, but to play this event this week, it will be great. I’ve played here before, I love this golf course and I know a bunch of people here.” This marked the final PGA TOUR qualifier of the 2022 calendar year. The next open event on TOUR will be the Sony Open in Hawaii in January. In all, 104 players competed for four spots in this week’s field. Click here for all scores from the qualifier. Here’s a capsule look at the four Monday qualifiers for The RSM Classic … Akshay Bhatia (62) Age: 20 Hometown: Wake Forest, North Carolina PGA TOUR starts: 19 Cuts made: 5 Best PGA TOUR finish: T9, 2020 Fortinet Championship Notes: Carded nine birdies against one bogey Monday, with girlfriend Presleigh Schultz on the bag … Holds full 2023 Korn Ferry Tour status after finishing No. 30 on 2022 season-long standings. Won season-opening The Bahamas Great Exuma Classic at Sandals Emerald Bay in January with Presleigh also on the bag … Also competed in last month’s Butterfield Bermuda Championship on TOUR, finishing T17 … Korean barbecue enthusiast. Bryson Nimmer (63) Age: 26 Hometown: Bluffton, South Carolina Alma mater: Clemson PGA TOUR starts: 10 Cuts made: 6 Best PGA TOUR finish: T11, 2022 Corales Puntacana Championship Notes: Carded five birdies and an eagle Monday, and he was without a bogey … Lives with TOUR rookie Ben Griffin in St. Simons Island, Georgia, down the street from Sea Island GC … Made three cuts in five TOUR starts last season, including a closing 65 for a T11 in Punta Cana … Made four cuts in seven starts on 2022 PGA TOUR Canada … Four-time first-team All-ACC selection at Clemson, joining Jonathan Byrd and D.J. Trahan as Clemson men’s golfers to accomplish the feat … Boating enthusiast. Brett Drewitt (65) Age: 31 Hometown: Taree, Australia PGA TOUR starts: 44 Cuts made: 17 Best PGA TOUR finish: T25, 2018 Fortinet Championship Notes: Carded seven bogeys Monday against two bogeys … Held 2022 PGA TOUR membership, making seven cuts in 23 starts and finishing No. 219 on the FedExCup … Has made 150 career Korn Ferry Tour starts, including a victory at the 2020 Memorial Health Championship presented by LRS … Twice earned PGA TOUR card via Korn Ferry Tour; 2016 Finals and 2020-21 Regular Season … Cricket enthusiast. Conner Godsey (65) Age: 30 Hometown: Rogersville, Alabama Alma mater: University of Montevallo PGA TOUR starts: 0 Notes: Made six birdies against one bogey Monday to earn his first career PGA TOUR start … Played 2022 Korn Ferry Tour, making 12 cuts in 22 starts and finishing No. 113 on the season-long standings. Best finish was T10 at The Ascendant presented by Blue in July … Finished T3 at PGA TOUR Canada’s CRMC Championship presented by Gertens in August … Finished No. 3 on 2020-21 PGA TOUR Latinoamerica Totalplay Cup, winning Banco del Pacifico Open in June 2021.

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FedExCup Playoff spots go on the line this week at the Wyndham Championship and if you want success at Sedgefield Country Club you better be ready to go low. The ability to make birdies in bunches is critical when you look at the statistical history of the event and this new column, splintered off from Horses For Courses, will focus on the key statistics to success and the players who have them in their locker to compete and win this week The Par-70 of Sedgefield Country Club plays only 7,131 yards and has historically produced a shootout. Let’s take a look at what we know and who is likely to contend. Five Key Statistics Only players listed are competing this week; click stat headline for a full list of players. Rounds in the 60s Last season was the first in SIX YEARS that the tournament scoring record wasn’t tied or under threat with the winner posting 21 or 22 under from 2016-2020 but there’s still no time to figure it out. Even though last year’s winning total was only 15-under, 34 players still managed to post 10-under or lower. The worst total of players posting 10-under or lower is 2017 when the number was just 27. The halcyon days of 2019 saw 47 players hit that mark for the week. Strokes Gained: Approach the Green Defending champion Kevin Kisner (12th) was the first champ since Davis Love III in 2015 (12th) to not finish in the top 10 of this key stat. In fact all winners during this time frame came in fourth or better. I’ll point out that the other five guys in the playoff last year ranked second, third, fifth, 10th and 26th. More rules than exceptions! Par-5 Scoring Not picking on last year’s champ but Kisner is the only winner to not finish in the top 10 in this category. He was T11! The point stands as the Par-5 holes here are some of the easiest on TOUR and must be attacked and taken advantage of over four rounds to push that 20-under magical mark for contention. Putting: Birdie or Better Conversion Percentage Probably should have stuck this right underneath Strokes Gained: Approach the Green! I’m not breaking any news here that the key to contending and winning a shootout is to hit as many GIR as possible and hole as many putts for birdie as allowed. Recent winners all hover in and around the top 12 with the exception of J.T. Poston. He decided to lead the field in GIR so expecting him to hole everything is a bit silly. But he didn’t make a bogey all week so the putter was still pretty effective! Interestingly Keith Mitchell comes up in three of the four traditional stats categories as a leader this season. He is at +5000 with BetMGM to win the tournament, +1000 for a Top 5, +450 for a Top 10 and +200 for a Top 20. Russell Henley and Harold Varner III also find their place highlighted more than once… Henley is +2200 to win while Varner III is +4000. Odds were sourced on Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2022. For live odds, visit BetMGM. The Bubble Boys One statistic not rooted as much in the golf clubs themselves is the trend of players making their way into the FedExCup Playoffs at the expense of others in a last-ditch push. The excitement of watching the points shuffle shot by shot is great for television but not so much for organizing lineups, fantasy and gaming. Since the points structure changed in 2009, an average of over 2.5 players per year have entered the final week of the FedExCup Regular Season outside the top 125 in the FedExCup standings and gone on to qualify for the FedExCup Playoffs. Three players did so last year. This is what we know. What we don’t know is who is or isn’t going to move into the top 125 this season. The last chance saloon applies to all in the field but below are the players on the outside of the FedExCup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List and the minimum finish they need at Wyndham for a chance to move through. Which two / three players would you bank on? If you like Max McGreevy for example, currently one spot outside the mark, you can get +550 from BetMGM for a Top-40 this week. McGreevy enters Wyndham knowing he needs to be inside the top 46 at the bare minimum to have a chance to advance. Others: Top-seven finish: Garrick Higgo, Brice Garnett, Henrik Norlander Top-six finish: Jonathan Byrd Top-five finish: Austin Cook Top-four finish: Charley Hoffman, Ben Martin, Bill Haas, Andrew Landry, Ryan Armour, Satoshi Kodaira Top-three finish: Dylan Wu, Chase Seiffert, Paul Barjon, Cameron Percy, Luke Donald, Sung Kang, Joseph Bramlett, Scott Gutschewski, Seth Reeves, Roger Sloan, William McGirt, Vaughn Taylor, Ben Kohles, Kevin Chappell, Curtis Thompson, Camilo Villegas, Jim Knous Top-two finish: Richy Werenski, Brandon Hagy, Tommy Gainey, Scott Brown, Aaron Baddeley, David Skinns, Harris English, Ryan Moore, Brian Gay, Wesley Bryan, Bo Hoag, David Lingmerth, Robert Garrigus, Jared Wolfe, Dawie van der Walt, Jim Herman, Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Bo Van Pelt, Jason Dufner, Joshua Creel, Chris Stroud, Ricky Barnes, Brett Drewitt Win: Davis Love III

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PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — Matt Jones’ opening round at The Honda Classic was remarkable. He was remarkably unimpressed. RELATED: Leaderboard | Adam Scott strips off shoes to make stunning par save from water Jones tied the course record Thursday on a typically windy day at PGA National with a bogey-free 9-under 61 giving him a three-shot lead. He matched the mark set by Brian Harman in the second round in 2012, and was one shot better than the final-round 62 that Tiger Woods posted that year. “That’s an incredible round of golf,” said Lee Westwood, who opened with an even-par 70. “Could be the round of the year, 61 around here, when it’s flat calm, impressive. But when there’s a 15-, 20-mile-an-hour wind blowing, greens are fast, a lot of crosswinds, that’s an incredible round of golf.” All told, there have been roughly 6,000 tournament rounds at The Honda Classic since it moved to PGA National in 2007. None was better than the one Thursday from Jones. He seemed most unfazed afterward. “I play golf for a living,” Jones said. “I mean, I should be able to shoot a good golf score occasionally. It doesn’t happen as much as I want. But yes, I’m very happy with it. I was very calm, I was very relaxed out there. I’m normally a bit more amped-up and hyped-up and I had a different goal this week, to be a little more calm than normally and walk slower.” It worked wonders. He’s not into charting superlatives. He doesn’t know how many course records he holds, or how many holes in one he’s made. He wasn’t even aware he had four consecutive birdies on the front nine Thursday until he saw his card on a giant leaderboard as his round was ending. “I was just managing the golf course and hitting good shots,” Jones said. Russell Henley and Aaron Wise shot 64s, matching the best score at The Honda Classic by anyone — Jones excluded — since Rory McIlroy and Russell Knox had 63s in 2014. Nobody in the field last year shot better than a 66. And Henley and Wise still walked off the course three shots back. “That’s an amazing round,” Wise said. “But I felt like I played one, too.” U.S. Ryder Cup captain Steve Stricker, Scott Harrington, Kevin Chappell, Joseph Bramlett and Cameron Davis shot 66. Defending champion Sungjae Im opened with a 68. Jones had the four consecutive birdies on Nos. 2-5, had others on the par-4 11th and par-4 13th, then finished with birdies on each of his final three holes and never dropped a shot despite The Honda’s usual windy conditions. Adam Hadwin, who played in Jones’ group, said “good shot” more times than he could count. “I just stopped saying it at a certain point,” Hadwin said. “He just hit so many, you just stop saying it. You’re just under the assumption that it was good.” Jones has one PGA TOUR victory, that coming with a chip-in to win a playoff at the 2014 Houston Open. He hasn’t made the cut in a major since the 2016 Open Championship and has never finished better than tied for fourth at The Honda, doing that in his debut at the event in 2008. “Whatever Matt Jones is doing, I want to see it because 61 out there is incredible,” said Shane Lowry, who shot 67 in his opening round. “That’s just incredible.” It was still a befuddling day for many. Graeme McDowell played the “Bear Trap” stretch — the par-3 15th, par-4 16th and par-3 17th — in 6 over, after making a quadruple bogey at 15 and a double bogey on 17. And Hunter Mahan had a six-hole stretch in which he made, in order, eagle, bogey, bogey, triple bogey, bogey, birdie. Mahan finished at 77, McDowell at 79. “It’s just so hard, so tricky,” Lowry said. “There’s a lot of disaster holes.” Jones, at least for one day, avoided them all. “It was a very good day,” he said.

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