The First Look: THE CJ CUP @ SUMMIT

POTOMAC, Maryland – Keegan Bradley is a native New Englander, a four-time PGA TOUR winner, 42nd in the FedExCup, and at 65th in the world is just outside the top 60. RELATED: Leaderboard | Putting machine McCarthy offers tips Significance? The top 60 on May 23, after the PGA Championship, will get into the U.S. Open at The Country Club in Bradley’s beloved Boston. He is acutely aware of this. “I’m trying not to think about it, but you reminded me,” said Bradley (67, 8 under), who has been the class of the field at the wet, cold Wells Fargo Championship at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm. “It’s on my mind. I know what’s at stake. “A lot of good things can come with a good round tomorrow.” The 35-year-old from Woodstock, Vermont, leads by two over Max Homa (71). Anirban Lahiri (70), seeking his first TOUR win, and James Hahn (72) are four back. “Attitude and patience,” Homa, who will be going for his fourth TOUR title overall and second of this season (Fortinet Championship), said of his keys this week. And good outerwear, too. “It’s pretty tough,” said Russell Henley (74, 4 over total). “You can’t feel your hands and your body’s not moving great, and the ball isn’t going anywhere. It was going 15 yards shorter for me. To shoot under par is really bringing your stuff today.” The temperature was 48 degrees late Saturday, but the rain made it feel colder. Only four players broke par. The field average of 3.662 over par was the highest relative to par since the final round of the 2020 Memorial Tournament presented by Workday (+3.959). Tyrrell Hatton (76, 2 over total) bogeyed seven of his last 10 holes and said he didn’t even play that bad. “Unfortunately, I shot myself out of the tournament,” he said. Added Austin Smotherman, “I just birdied three of my last five holes to shoot 73, and I feel like I played lights-out.” He shook his head and laughed. “I was even par other than a triple on 17. You’re just one swing away …” From calamity, he didn’t have to say. In conditions this hard, no lead is safe. Jason Day started the day with a three-shot cushion over Homa, but in 45 excruciating minutes squandered it all and then some, going bogey, triple-bogey, bogey on holes 3, 4 and 5. Day’s front-nine 41 brought almost everyone who made the cut back into it. “Unfortunately, I just didn’t have my stuff today,” he said after signing for a 79 (1 under total). Matt Fitzpatrick (71) is 3 under and five behind. Rory McIlroy (68) had the day’s second-best round and at 2 under is in a logjam at six back. “I know it’s probably not going to be as wet,” said McIlroy, the defending champion and three-time Wells Fargo winner. “It’s going to be quite cold. I don’t know what the wind’s going to be like. I can’t imagine tomorrow being any tougher than today was. You can’t really chase much around here because it’s a tough golf course, but like six shots is still a long way back.” Bradley had the best round for the second straight day; he shot 65 in similar weather Friday. His performance this week comes after he shot a 71 in a stiff, cold wind at THE PLAYERS Championship in March. It would have been a 69 absent a bizarre penalty after his ball blew across the green. Bad weather? Bradley’s coach, Darren May, and caddie, Scott Vail, look forward to it like a kid looks forward to Christmas. They remind Bradley he owns bad weather. “When the conditions get like this,” Bradley said, “I find a sense of calm because I’m sort of worried about other things, keeping my clubs dry and my bag dry. Sort of keeps me in the present.” The forecast for the final round Sunday calls for colder temps, but no rain. No doubt the course will again be a beast. “It feels like I’ve just gone 12 rounds in a pro boxing match,” Lahiri said. “You’re fighting everything – you’re fighting your body, the elements, the water, the cold, the conditions. “Yeah, it’s tough work and you just have to grit your teeth and kind of grind it out.”

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Tony Finau feels better, and he is thankful for that. With his health and his game improving, he has his eyes set on the Masters.

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KAPALUA, Hawaii – The Plantation Course at Kapalua – host course for the Sentry Tournament of Champions – is set to get an extensive rejuvenation before the 2020 event. In a bid to return the course to hard and fast fairways to assist resort players and further challenge PGA TOUR players the property will be shut down on February 12 for a nine-month restoration from Bill Coore. The current TifEagle Bermuda grass will be replaced across the course with Celebration Bermuda, bringing back the ability to run the ball up and onto the greens throughout the course. It will once again help showcase the breathtaking elevation changes on the property. Bunkering will also be addressed, as will numerous tournament tee boxes, but Coore says the design team will remain true to the roots of the course. “Our hope is that the golf course that will be presented next year will be more of a restoration and rejuvenation, maybe refinements in certain areas, but a restoration of what the course was in its early days,â€� Coore said. “There’s no intent on our part to create a golf course that’s unrecognizable from what’s been here before. It will just be a more polished version of that, and in many ways we hope will address developments, evolution that’s happened with the best players in the world. “In its early days the golf course played much faster, much firmer, than it does and has in the last decade. This new turfing will restore those characteristics.â€� Mark Rolfing, the NBC and Golf Channel analyst who has been part of the Kapalua team for over 30 years, is extremely enthusiastic about the project. “What has happened is that for the average player the course has become much harder and for the best players in the world the course has become much easier,â€� Rolfing admitted. “One of the goals of this refinement plan is to kind of switch that, how do we go the opposite direction, how do we make it more of a challenge for the best players in the world and at the same time more playable so and consequently more enjoyable for the average player.â€� Coore pointed out a frustrating condition the course is currently showcasing – that of soft approach areas near greens but firm and fast putting surfaces. “That’s just a nightmare situation that frustrates everyone,â€� Coore said. He referenced an albatross from Andy Bean in the early years of tournament play at the venue on the par-5 18th that landed 120 yards out from the hole and rolled the rest of the way down the significant hill. “The last few years the best players in the world that are landing the ball 20 yards short of the green and it doesn’t get there. So now they have this little chip or pitch to a really fast downhill, downwind, down grain green. That is not a good situation.â€� As far as new tournament tees the design team envisaged adding length to the par-4 3rd and par-5 9th for starters. While all greens will be resurfaced the 6th, 10th and 13th will likely also get updates to get more pin locations.

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