This week in golf: PGA Tour’s loaded field, LPGA returns, LIV Golf prepares for its finale

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. — Patrick Rodgers ran off four straight birdies late in his round Saturday and finished with a par save for a 6-under 64, giving him a share of the lead with Ben Martin in The RSM Classic and another chance at his first PGA TOUR title. Martin was poised to match that score until he came up short on the 18th green, chipped to just inside 5 feet and missed the par putt. He had a 65. They were at 14-under 198 in the final PGA TOUR event of the year, and it was far from a two-man race. Ten players were within two shots of the lead, a group that included Sahith Theegala (68), Brian Harman (64) and even Harry Higgs, who was atop the leaderboard at the start of the day and had a 25-foot birdie putt on the final hole for a 70. Cole Hammer, who graduated from Texas in May and is playing on a sponsor exemption, was tied for the lead going into the weekend. He was 4 over through five holes and managed a 72. Even so, he was only four shots behind. Rodgers hit the reset button after last season ended in August, setting up a plan with swing coach Jeff Smith that entails making incremental improvements. It appears to be working. He tied for third in Bermuda three weeks ago and has been a steady presence during the fall events. Rodgers was the top-ranked amateur in the world his final year at Stanford. He is making his 226th start on the PGA TOUR and still searching for his first win. It didn’t take long to get in the mix. He holed a 25-foot birdie putt on the 13th hole, stuffed his approach to 6 feet on the tough 14th, made an 8-foot birdie on the par-5 15th and capped off his run with a 30-foot birdie putt on the 16th. “I feel like I put together a tiny offseason with my coach, Jeff Smith. We really put a good plan together,” Rodgers said. “I’ve been feeling more comfortable. It’s a hard game, and it’s always nice to see hard work pay off.” Eight of the top players on the leaderboard have yet to win on the PGA TOUR. Theegala certainly had his chances during his rookie year that saw him reach the TOUR Championship. Taylor Pendrith (65) got plenty of experience playing his first Presidents Cup in September. Taylor Montgomery has had a strong start to his rookie season with five finishes in the top 15. He already is up to No. 65 in the world. Martin’s lone PGA TOUR victory was eight years ago in Las Vegas. Adam Svensson of Canada made the biggest move with a 62, including an eagle on the par-5 15th hole, putting him one shot behind along with Theegala and Andrew Putnam, who also shared the 36-hole lead. He saved par from a bunker on the last hole for a 69.

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KAPALUA, Hawaii – Justin Thomas hits 2020 craving more. Much more. More than the FedExCup he’s won. More than the four weeks he spent at world No. 1. More than being one of just 10 players to shoot a sub 60 round on TOUR. More than the 11 PGA TOUR wins, including a major championship, that sit on his resume at just 26 years of age. The drive behind Thomas remains stronger than ever despite past success. There is no resting on laurels. Quite the opposite. A pesky wrist injury last season helped take a win “droughtâ€� to just over a year before he connected in the FedExCup Playoffs with a BMW Championship triumph. His previous 11 starts prior to the win had been devoid of a top 10 – the longest such drought of his entire PGA TOUR career – including his amateur starts. RELATED: Power Rankings | Top 30 Players to Watch: Justin Thomas But the victory in Chicago reasserted Thomas as a class above most. He then opened 2019-20 with a T4 at the Safeway Open before winning the THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES. Adding a T17 at THE ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP in Japan means he enters the Sentry Tournament of Champions at Kapalua this week sitting fifth in the FedExCup. “I’m disappointed I haven’t achieved more to be honest until this far. I shouldn’t say disappointed… but I feel like I could have and should have won a lot more tournaments and definitely should have contended and won some more majors,â€� an honest Thomas said from Maui. The 2017 FedExCup champion won at Kapalua that same year and was third here 12 months ago. It makes sense that he hopes to continue his rise back up where fond memories are in abundance. His competitive fire is so strong it can sometimes be mistaken for a chip on his shoulder. With other players taking a bigger share of the spotlight in the last year one might think Thomas is driven to prove any doubters – or even those who may have slightly forgotten about his incredible talents – wrong. Not so. “All the motivation I need to get to No. 1 in the world is in myself. I don’t need to try to prove anybody wrong. I don’t need to do it because people said I can’t. Because I want to be there is big enough motivation for me,â€� he explains. “I wouldn’t say anybody slept on me last year. I didn’t play very well to start the year, and I hadn’t won at all, and I dropped five to ten in the world rankings, so there’s a lot of people that were playing better than me and winning more tournaments. “I could have had a pity party and asked for more attention, but I definitely didn’t deserve anything special. I hadn’t done what I had the year before and definitely not two years before that. I tried to stay patient, and I was glad to see it kind of come back to how it felt like it should have been at the end of the year.â€�

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Hideki Matsuyama made up a 5-shot deficit on the back nine and then won the Sony Open in a playoff with one of the best shots he never saw, a 3-wood into the sun to 3 feet for an eagle to beat Russell Henley on Sunday.

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