Tiger Woods appears on track for Players

Jhonattan Vegas (+250 for a Top 20) … Yes, Vegas in Vegas. With the requisite acknowledgment of that cute (but tired) connection out of the way, what shouldn’t be cast aside is his fit for The Summit Club. His driver and irons are his moneymakers, and they yielded over $2 million in 2020-21 with a trio of runner-up finishes among eight top 25s. The Venezuelan concluded the regular season with three top 20s and a T16 at the Olympics. Also rested since the entire month of September and first two weekends of October. Kevin Streelman (+250 for a Top 20) … The 42-year-old arrives having cashed in six consecutive starts, the first two of which top 20s. He has six top 20s in his last 12, three of which in majors. That’s what veteran moxie and taut ball-striking can do even as he embarks on his age-43 season. Completed 2020-21 ranked inside the top 35 on TOUR in total driving, greens hit, proximity, Strokes Gained: Approach and adjusted scoring. Alex Noren (+185 for a Top 20) … Now as an established fifth-year member of the PGA TOUR, the 39-year-old Swede presents as a threat just about every time he appears and despite having yet to connect for a victory in 112 career starts on the circuit. That’s because he’s a 10-time winner on the European Tour where he finished T12 at the Dunhill Links two weeks ago. Prior to it, he completed the Playoffs by going T4-T9 to land at a career-best 33rd in the FedExCup. For the season, he recorded 12 top 25s in 25 starts, largely on the strength of his patented putter (13th in Strokes Gained: Putting). Emiliano Grillo (+225 for a Top 20) … Although he’s fallen off the pace in recent months, the 29-year-old from Argentina always makes sense on unfamiliar greens. His tee-to-green precision slotted him 17th in total driving and third in greens in regulation last season. He also co-led the PGA TOUR in proximity to the hole. Best of all, a midseason improvement with his putter swung the needle into positive territory in Strokes Gained: Putting for a couple of months into the summer. Joohyung (Tom) Kim (+800 for a Top 20) … If you haven’t been introduced to the talent from South Korea, you’ve been missing out. At just 19 years of age, he’s 151st in the Official World Golf Ranking and fourth from his homeland. Only Sungjae Im (21st), Si Woo Kim (46th) and K.H. Lee (59th) slot higher. Nicknamed after Thomas The Tank Engine, Kim is a two-time winner on the KPGA where he’s currently second in Genesis Points (with seven top fives in the last six months) and first in both scoring average and birdie average. He’s also 13th in fairways hit, fifth in greens in regulation and 22nd in putts per GIR. In five starts on the PGA TOUR in 2020-21, he cashed four times, including a solo 64th in THE CJ CUP @ SHADOW CREEK and a personal-best T15 in Puerto Rico when he still was 18. Odds were sourced on Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2021. For live odds, visit betmgm.

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ST. ANDREWS, Scotland – No matter what happens in his promising career, Barclay Brown will be able to say he held the clubhouse lead at The 150th Open Championship at the Old Course in St. Andrews. The 21-year-old amateur from Sheffield, England, took advantage of playing in the second group of the morning in relatively calm conditions to post a very tidy 4-under 68. Here are five things to know about the surprise standout at the Home of Golf. 1. The Fitzpatrick connection Brown is a member of Hallamshire Golf Club, where he is joined by recent U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick, and Fitzpatrick’s brother Alex with whom he partnered on the 2021 Walker Cup team. He gained his place in the field with a dominant performance at Final Qualifying at Hollinwell, gaining medalist honors by three strokes, before saying it was Fitzpatrick’s success at Brookline that helped inspire his performance. “Matt was unbelievable (at the U.S. Open) and it was incredible to watch him. He’s texted me to say congratulations, which is really nice of him, and hopefully I can play with him early in the week at St. Andrews,” Brown said at the time. 2. Amateur records Brown is currently ranked 46th in the world amateur golf ranking. He had a 1-2-1 record in the 2021 Walker Cup, partnering with Fitzpatrick in team play. He advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2020 Amateur Championship at Royal Birkdale in England and shot 70-65 to be the co-medalist in stroke-play at the 2022 Amateur at Royal Lytham but was knocked out in the first round of match play by Gustav Frimodt (4 and 3). He was the 2018 Carris Trophy winner (English Boys’ Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship). 3. Cardinal at college He plays college golf at Stanford in California where he studies economics and has two years remaining to finish his degree. Recently posted runner up efforts at the Pac-12 Championships and the NCAA Stockton Regional. He won the 2021 Cowboy Classic, finishing at 14-under, one of eight top 10s in his time at Stanford where his scoring average is 71.71. Honors so far include All-Pac-12 Second Team (2022), PING All-Region Team (2021), All-Pac-12 First Team (2021), All-Pac-12 Newcomer Team (2021), Srixon/Cleveland Golf All-America Scholar (2021), Two-time Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll (2021, 2022). He is also teammates with Michael Thorbjornsen, who recently made a splash as an amateur by finishing 4th at Travelers. 4. Sporting all-rounder Attended the Birkdale School (high school) where he not only played golf, but also was an accomplished badminton, soccer and tennis player. Brown enjoys music, finding good food and working out as his hobbies. 5. New experience at Old Course His only previous experience at the Old Course was a round with his parents when he was a wee lad. “I played when I was probably 9 or 10, but other than that is was my first time,” Brown said. “They used to do a thing in like January or February where you could play the Old Course so we came up as a family and played. I don’t really remember playing it at all … I probably shot in the millions. (Today) I was unbelievably nervous at the start and once I got through the first couple of holes it was nice to calm down a little bit and just get into it. I want to play the best I can and I want to win the Silver Medal (low amateur).”

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TULSA, Okla. – After opening the PGA Championship with rounds of 68 and 64, Mito Pereira has taken the lead early in the third round at the PGA Championship. The 27-year-old from Chile is playing his first full season as a TOUR member and looking to make a major his first PGA TOUR victory. Here’s Five Things to Know about the leader at the PGA Championship: 1. THREE’S COMPANY Pereira earned his first PGA TOUR card by winning three times on the Korn Ferry Tour during the extended 2020-21 season, becoming the 12th player to earn a three-win promotion from that circuit and the first since 2016. His first win came at the Country Club de Bogota in February 2020. Sixteen months later, he won back-to-back starts to graduate to the PGA TOUR. In those last two events, he was 48 under par and had a 65.1 scoring average. His highest score in that span was 67. “This is crazy, man,” Pereira said after the win. “This is by far the best thing that I’ve done in my life. … It’s been a long ride. There’s been tough moments, good moments, but it’s all worth it.” It didn’t take him long to have success on the PGA TOUR. He had back-to-back top-6 finishes in July before finishing fourth at the Olympics, falling in the seven-man playoff for the bronze medal. 2. STANDING ROOM Pereira entered this week ranked 46th in the FedExCup and 100th in the world ranking. A third-place finish in the season-opening Fortinet Championship is his lone top-10 of the season. He entered the week with four consecutive top-30 finishes in individual tournaments, though, including a T17 at last week’s AT&T Byron Nelson. The stats show that ballstriking is Pereira’s strength, which is paying off this week. He’s fourth this season in greens in regulation (71.4%), 13th in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green (+0.67) and 30th in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee (+0.45). He ranks outside the top 100 in both Strokes Gained metrics that measure short-game performance (Putting and Around-the-Green), however. He’s also 16th in the standings for this year’s International Presidents Cup team. 3. PHENOM-ENAL Pereira was something of a junior phenom in his native Chile. He was runner-up in the boys 10-11 division of the 2006 Optimist International Junior Golf Championship and won the 12-13 division two years later (Beau Hossler finished third, one stroke back). Pereira enrolled at the prestigious IMG Academy in Florida when he was 14 but was burnt out after six months and quit the game for two years. When he decided to start playing again, he quickly picked up where he left off, however. “I took the two years off but when I came back I knew I could do it, I knew I could get to here,” he said Friday, “and I just kept the confidence, and obviously there were some up and downs but (I’m) really happy to be here.” He won on the Chilean Professional Tour when he was 17 and embarked for Lubbock, Texas, to play one season at Texas Tech, reaching as high as No. 5 in the world amateur world ranking before turning pro in 2015 after his freshman season. The Big 12 Championship was played at Southern Hills for Pereira’s lone season with the Red Raiders. He finished eighth, nine shots back of winner Scottie Scheffler. Pereira finished third on the PGA TOUR Latinoamerica Order of Merit in 2016, racking up a win and three-other top-3 finishes, to earn Korn Ferry Tour status. He finished a solid 76th on the Korn Ferry Tour money list the next year before losing his card in 2018. He returned to Latinoamerica for one season before making it back to the KFT. 4. RISING STARS Pereira is the third Chilean to earn a PGA TOUR card, after Benjamin Alvarado and Joaquin Niemann. Pereira and Niemann, 23, have been friends since they were kids. They used to practice together daily and shared a coach, Eduardo Miguel, who still coaches both of them. Pereira also resided in Niemann’s South Florida home after the COVID-19 pandemic made international travel impossible, and had his Korn Ferry Tour trophies sent to Niemann’s home. Niemann was known in their younger days for wearing a lot of yellow. “He looked like a bee,” said Pereira. Niemann also looked up to the older Pereira. “We all grew up together,” said Carlos Bustos, another Chilean who played college golf at Florida. “Mito was always better because he was older than us. He was on another level at that age, when we were like 13, 14, I mean he was an unbelievable golfer.” Niemann went on to become the No. 1 amateur in the world before winning twice on the PGA TOUR. He and Pereira were teammates at last year’s Olympics and now look to team together again at this year’s Presidents Cup. 5. ADRENALINE JUNKY Pereira is known as a bit of an adrenaline junkie, which could help him cope with the stress of a major championship. He’s a fan of motocross and MotoGP (Grand Prix motorcycle racing). After enduring a difficult season on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2018 and failing to regain his status at Q-School, Pereira broke his collarbone when he fell off his bike. The injury may have been a blessing in disguise. “Obviously in that moment it was terrible,” he said. “But if I look back, it probably helped me a little bit. It was a month that I didn’t play. I cooled down and took all the bad things out.” He also discovered a mental coach, Eugenio Lisama, who works with Formula 1 racers and soccer players. Pereira says working with sensors on his brain and analyzing the data was “like going to the gym for your brain.” “He showed me some data of those guys and it’s unbelievable,” Pereira said about the athletes who engage their brain much quicker than he does playing golf. “But we all need our minds to be blank. That’s what he teaches and trains with me on.”

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