Travelers Championship, Round 4: Leaderboard, tee times, TV times

It’s the final official event of the year, bringing the calendar to a close at the picturesque Sea Island Resort in St. Simons Island, Georgia. Tony Finau, who’s scheduled to return to Sea Island for the first time since 2014, leads the field. There are plenty of locals looking to win on their home turf, as well, as Sea Island is a popular gathering spot for some of the TOUR’s top players. FIELD NOTES: Finau, a two-time winner on TOUR last season, is the highest-ranked golfer in the field… Six of the top 40 in the world are teeing it up, with Brian Harman, Sepp Straka, Tom Hoge, 2015 RSM Classic winner Kevin Kisner and FedExCup leader Seamus Power, winner of the recent Butterfield Bermuda Championship, joining Finau. Qualifiers for last season’s TOUR Championship who are in the field are Straka, Finau, Hoge, Harman, J.T. Poston, Sahith Theegala and Scott Stallings… Recent RSM winners in the field include Kisner, two-time RSM winner Robert Streb, Chris Kirk, Austin Cook, Tyler Duncan, and Mackenzie Hughes, who won the Sanderson Farms Championship this fall… Tournament host Davis Love III will tee it up alongside fellow major champs in Webb Simpson, Francesco Molinari, Justin Rose, Stewart Cink, Jason Dufner, Zach Johnson, and Jason Day… Nick Hardy and Zac Blair are teeing it up on major medical extensions… Sponsor exemptions include four-time TOUR winner Aaron Baddeley, Camilo Villegas, Chris Gotterup, Jacob Bridgeman, Notre Dame’s Palmer Jackson and Georgia alum Spencer Ralston. Bridgeman (No. 2) and Gotterup (No. 7) were members of this year’s class in PGA TOUR University presented by Velocity Global. Gotterup, the 2022 NCAA Player of the Year, recently finished T3 at the Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying Tournament, while Bridgeman finished T45 to earn conditional status. Jackson earned his spot in the field by winning the prestigious Jones Cup at nearby Ocean Forest Golf Club. Past champions of that amateur event include Justin Thomas, Corey Conners and PGA TOUR rookie Davis Thompson. Jackson is No. 20 in the PGA TOUR University Velocity Global Ranking. Baddeley has Monday qualified for two events this season, including a T6 finish at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship. Villegas was a Captain’s Assistant at this year’s Presidents Cup. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 500 FedExCup points. COURSE: Sea Island Resort (Seaside), 7,005 yards, par 70; Sea Island Resort (Plantation), 7,060 yards, par 72. Tournament Davis Love III and his brother Mark re-worked the Plantation Course – inspired by the traditional profile of Walter Travis’ 1928 original – in 2019 with plenty of classic design features. Tom Fazio, meanwhile, redid the Seaside Course – a links-style layout adjacent to the ocean – in 1999. STORYLINES: Four of the last six editions of The RSM Classic have gone into a playoff, including three in a row from 2018-2020… Sea Island has been a haven for first-time TOUR winners but not so much for local residents. There are lots in the field this year, per usual, but none have won the event. While Kevin Kisner captured the title in 2015, he was actually living in Sea Island only because his South Carolina home was being renovated… If there is one golfer to look at continuing the first-timer-trend at Sea Island, look to Taylor Montgomery, who hasn’t missed a cut this fall (with finishes of 3-T9-T15-T13-T10)… Webb Simpson is hoping to finally take this tournament across the finish line. He finished inside the top 10, again, last season – the fifth time he’s done that, including two playoff losses… This is the last official PGA TOUR event on the calendar until the Sentry Tournament of Champions the first week of January. 72-HOLE RECORD: 260, Kevin Kisner (2015), Talor Gooch (2021) 18-HOLE RECORD: 60, Tommy Gainey (4th round, 2012), Sebastian Munoz (1st round, 2021), Tyler McCumber (4th round, 2021) LAST TIME: Talor Gooch fired a final-round 64 to win by three over 2016 RSM champ Mackenzie Hughes for his maiden TOUR title. Gooch made three birdies in four holes after making the turn on Sunday and no one else could get close as the tournament reached its conclusion. Gooch had a three-shot lead to start the day and was locked in early, making birdies of just five and nine feet on Nos. 2 and 4 to start his final round. Gooch’s 22-under 260 matched the tournament record set by Kevin Kisner in 2014, while he became the seventh golfer in the 12-year history of the tournament to make The RSM Classic his first TOUR victory. Hughes shot a tidy 8-under 62 to finish solo second, while Sebastian Munoz, who earlier in the week shot a course record-tying 60, finished third. Tyler McCumber, who shot a 60 of his own in the final round, finished tied for fourth alongside three other golfers. HOW TO FOLLOW: Television: Thursday-Friday, 12 p.m.-3 p.m. ET. Saturday-Sunday, 1 p.m.-4 p.m. (Golf Channel) For outside of the U.S., click here for GOLFTV powered by the PGA TOUR PGA TOUR LIVE: PGA TOUR Live is available exclusively on ESPN+ Main Feed: primary tournament-coverage featuring the best action from across the course Marquee Group: new “marquee group” showcasing every shot from each player in the group Featured Groups: traditional PGA TOUR LIVE coverage of two concurrent featured groups Featured Holes: a combination of par-3s and iconic or pivotal holes Radio: Thursday-Friday, 10 a.m.–4 p.m. ET. Saturday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio)

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It had been more than 70 years since an Italian won on the PGA TOUR, but when the drought was broken it was broken in style as Francesco Molinari obliterated the field on Sunday at the Quicken Loans National. Welcome to the Monday Finish where Molinari gave the heart broken Italian soccer fans who have been watching the World Cup without a team something to cheer about at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm. FIVE OBSERVATIONS 1. Mistake-free golf is very hard to do but Molinari went four days with very few errors – on a course that a year ago played as one of the toughest on the PGA TOUR. Now this year it was certainly a little softer and more receptive but to make 21 birdies and an eagle in four rounds is phenomenal stuff, especially paired with just two bogeys. And they came before Sunday’s final round with everything on the line. On Sunday a clinical Molinari was a sight to see. Knowing those around him would likely face nerves, particularly co-leader Abraham Ancer who is without a victory, Molinari hit six of seven fairways and seven of nine greens on the front side. Two birdies gave him a nice little buffer heading down the stretch. Then from the ninth green on, he showed some serious class. A huge par putt on the ninth stopped the challengers feeling like he might wobble. Then he went eagle, birdie, birdie, birdie, birdie to annihilate the field and wound up winning by an incredible eight shots. That sort of steady golf will certainly give him a huge chance at completing his goal of making the TOUR Championship. Read about his win here. 2. Tiger Woods changed his putter prior to the tournament, opting for a mallet style weapon. It certainly sent the golf world into a frenzy. But after a handful of tournaments with poor results on the greens, and with the slower greens expected at the upcoming Open Championship, Woods felt the time to change was now. The 79-time TOUR winner certainly made more putts this week. He ranked seventh overall in the field in Strokes Gained: Putting and as such is taking confidence with him to Carnoustie. But there remains a small concern. He is still missing some of the shorter putts. He missed 13 from inside 10 feet with five of those inside 7 feet. The old Woods didn’t miss that many short ones in half a season. But his T4 result is another step forward in this latest comeback. The signs are there. He is good enough to win again. Read more about his round here. 3. Ryan Armour certainly fits the profile of “some things get better with age.� The 42-year-old broke through for his first TOUR win early this season at the Sanderson Farms Championship and added a runner-up finish this week. With his seventh top-25 finish of the season, he has matched that of his rookie 2007 campaign, but of course there were no victories that season. He finished 128th in the FedExCup having dipped out in the first week of the Playoffs (142 players were eligible back then). He has never returned but is a certainty now that he’s moved up to 30th in the current standings. There was nothing overly special about his Sunday round except that he stayed focused even when winning was not a likely option. Instead he buckled down and earned a berth in the Open Championship. Don’t be surprised if he sneaks his way to East Lake. 4. Speaking of the Open Championship, Armour was joined by Ancer, Sung Kang and Bronson Burgoon as those players fortunate enough to play their way in as part of The Open Championship Qualifying Series. The top four players not already exempt earned a ticket. The Open will be Armour’s first major championship. Kang qualified just as he did at the same venue a year ago, this time shooting 6-under 64 to take third place. It will be his fifth major and second Open Championship after a T44 finish last season. Ancer dropped from the overnight lead with a 2-over 72 leaving him tied for fourth but gets the consolation of playing his first major championship. The last spot went to Burgoon, who had a huge Sunday playing with Tiger Woods. At 408th in the world leading in, it took a 72nd hole birdie for Burgoon to lock it up. That’s clutch. 5. Beau Hossler’s time is coming. Soon. He leads the TOUR this season in rounds in the 60s – now at 42 out of 86 rounds. His T6 finish this week is a fifth top 10 and he has made 20 of 23 cuts. He’s pushed up to 26th in the FedExCup. There is still the issue of his scoring average fading as each passing round goes on but the experiences are filling up and will eventually bring a new level of comfort. It is not a matter of if Hossler will win on TOUR, it is a matter of when. FIVE INSIGHTS 1. Molinari moved from 123rd in the FedExCup to 42nd with the win. He has qualified for the FedExCup Playoffs in each of the last three seasons but has yet to make the TOUR Championship. 2. Molinari’s 54-hole score of 197 is a career-low and a tournament record, tying Ancer this week. His 72-hole score of 259 is a career-low and a tournament record. It’s also the lowest winning total this season. The eight-stroke win smashes the previous tournament record of three strokes and matches Dustin Johnson’s victory margin at the Sentry Tournament of Champions as the largest this season. 3. Final-round 62 marks best finish by a winner this season (one better than Bubba Watson’s 63 at the Travelers Championship last week). 4. Molinari ranked seventh in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee but was first in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green. He hit 42 of 56 fairways. He also led the field in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green, hitting 62 of 72 greens in regulation. He was second in the field in proximity at 27 feet, 8 inches. He also ranked first in the field in scrambling. 5. Woods now has 11 starts on TOUR in his comeback. This week was his third top 10, moving him to 47th in the FedExCup. He is now assured to qualify for the Playoffs for the first time since 2013 when he finished second overall in the FedExCup.

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