Tiger shares 36-hole lead for 1st time since 2015

In his first two seasons on the PGA TOUR, Patton Kizzire failed to advance past the second round of the FedExCup Playoffs. That shouldn’t be a worry for him this year. Fueled by his win at the OHL Classic at Mayakoba and two other top-10 finishes, Kizzire completed the fall portion of the 2017-18 season as the FedExCup points leader. In each of the four previous seasons of the TOUR’s wraparound schedule, the points leader after the fall has not only made it past the second round of the FedExCup Playoffs but has also advanced to the TOUR Championship every year – Jimmy Walker in 2013-14 (eventual finish: 7th), Robert Streb in 2014-15 (18th), Kevin Kisner in 2015-16 (23rd) and Hideki Matsuyama a year ago (8th). The only caveat: Kizzire’s 659 points is the fewest of the fall points leader in the last five seasons. Streb had the previous low with 681. Even so, Kizzire can probably go ahead and plan on his first trip to the BMW Championship, the third leg of the FedExCup Playoffs. His 659 points exceeds the point total needed to advance to the BMW last season. Rod Pampling was the 70th and last player in the field to qualify with 630 points. Despite the comfortable spot in which he enters the break, Kizzire doesn’t plan to take his foot off the gas once the TOUR resumes its official schedule at the Sentry Tournament of Champions in the first week of January. “I’m looking forward to chasing that FedExCup and getting to the TOUR Championship and playing a little bit better than I have in the Playoffs,� he said last week prior to his T-45 finish at The RSM Classic. PLAYOFF BOUND? Last year it took 365 points to make the FedExCup Playoffs. After the fall, there are 11 players who have already exceeded that point total. The list includes seven of the eight winners of the fall events, plus four non-winners – Chesson Hadley, Tony Finau, J.J. Spaun and Whee Kim. The only non-winner not yet at 365 points is Ryan Armour, winner of the Sanderson Farms Championship, which offers 300 points to the winner as an alternate-field event. Armour has 356 points, so he shouldn’t be too worried about making the Playoffs. Of the top 11 above last year’s threshold, 10 have prior experience in the Playoffs. The only one who doesn’t is Sunday’s winner of The RSM Classic, rookie Austin Cook. Cook moved into third place in the points standings after his breakthrough victory. “My goal is to make a good, long, deep run into the FedExCup Playoffs and get to East Lake,� Cook said, “and perform there and compete and try and win the FedExCup.� If he does happen to win the FedExCup, it would be historic – no rookie has won the TOUR’s biggest prize. FALL WINNERS. As noted above, there were eight different winners in the fall. A year ago, there were seven different winners, and all seven advanced to at least the second round of the FedExCup Playoffs. Three of those seven winners reached the TOUR Championship – Pat Perez, Hideki Matsuyama and eventual FedExCup champ Justin Thomas. JT’S THE MAN. Speaking of Thomas – not only is he the reigning FedExCup champ, he’s also arguably the King of the Fall. No other player since the beginning of the wraparound schedule has accumulated more FedExCup points in the fall than Thomas, who has a total of 1,976 points – most of those coming from his three fall wins. The next four players on the list behind Thomas are: Russell Knox (1,699 points), Ryan Moore (1,612 points), Hideki Matsuyama (1,565 points) and Brendan Steele (1,553 points). FALL CONSISTENCY. Since the start of the wraparound schedule, 19 players have finished the fall events inside the top 125 each season. However, just one of those players has finished inside the top 30 in four of the five years – Charles Howell III, who is currently ranked 22nd in points. Four other players have been inside the top 30 three times – Brendan Steele, Gary Woodland, Hideki Matsuyama and Russell Knox. Matsuyama, incidentally, converted each of those top-30 fall finishes into a top-30 result – and a spot in the TOUR Championship – at the end of the FedExCup season.  THE 57 PERCENT RULE. A total of 206 players earned at least one FedExCup point this fall. If history holds, you can expect 57 percent of those players to have now stamped their ticket to the Playoffs. Since the 2013-14 season, 814 players earned points in the fall portion – and 466 of those players (57.25 percent) eventually made the Playoffs that same season. As for making the TOUR Championship – 102 of those 814 players (12.53 percent) reached East Lake. BUBBLE BOY. Veteran Adam Scott is the current, ahem, “bubble boy� after the fall, as he’s No. 125 in FedExCup points. (Hey, it’s never too early to reference the term “bubble boy� here at the TOUR!). In looking at the previous players who left the fall in the 125th position, three of the players failed to make the Playoffs. The only year the bubble boys advanced into the Playoffs came in 2016, when Brandt Snedeker and Adam Hadwin were tied for the 124th spot after the fall. Hadwin advanced to the second Playoffs event, while Snedeker eventually finished 15th in the FedExCup standings that year.

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“Brandon makes 199 ballspeed look like a walk in the park,” a Srixon representative told GolfWRX.com. “It’s effortless power, stunning to see in person. The toughest thing about working with Brandon is to not allow yourself to get sucked into the distance absurdity, and really dive into what he needs on the golf course to play his best golf. He’s grown so much in learning how to use his power effectively.” To suit Matthews’ preferences on performance and looks, he currently fits into a Srixon ZX7 with an 8.5-degree head, equipped with an LA Golf Trono 75X shaft at 44.5 inches. Compared to the ZX5 driver that Srixon offers, the ZX7 model that Matthews employs has a rounder and more compact shape that’s made for lower spin and a penetrating ball flight. While some may assume that a player with such speed may require specific alterations to the clubhead, Srixon says that Matthews uses a mostly neutral setup. “His driver setup is pretty normal,” the Srixon rep said. “It is weighted very neutral, but with lower loft than most guys play these days. He plays a stout shaft, but it’s not absurd considering his speed. His feels are important to him. Brandon likes to see a lot of heads and compare them, really prefers the “sit open at address” look. He likes to see a hair more spin than some might say is ideal. He feels that when spin gets too low, his ball moves too hard left to right.” According to Srixon, Matthews doesn’t use his driver to hit draw shots. When he wants to turn the ball from right-to-left, he opts for a fairway wood or driving iron, instead. By selecting just one shot shape, Matthews can find more consistency off the tee despite his long distances. “Brandon always prefers to see the ball move left to right with the driver,” Srixon said. “He has really committed to that and has been very disciplined in using 3-wood and driving irons when he wants to move it right to left. He’s so talented, he can do just about anything. But being more committed to a particular shape with the big stick is paying dividends for him.” And it should be wowing fans on the PGA TOUR sooner than later. Brandon Matthews’ big-hitting game is headed to the PGA TOUR. The 27-year-old Temple alum is playing this week’s Wells Fargo Championship on a sponsor’s exemption and looks likely to become a PGA TOUR member later this year. Matthews is near the top of the Korn Ferry Tour Regular Season Points list after a posting a runner-up and victory in back-to-back weeks in February. Matthews, who’s 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds, led the Korn Ferry Tour in driving distance in 2019 (331.3 yards) and is capable of pushing 200 mph of ball speed off the tee. At last week’s Hunstville Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour, Matthews went without a driver because of the tight venue and the fact that he could carry his 3-wood 320 yards. To gain more insight into Matthews’ game, and how he sets up his driver to hit it such impressive distances, we spoke to the Cleveland-Srixon team that works closely with Matthews on his equipment; Matthews has been a Cleveland-Srixon staffer since 2019.

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