Undercover Tour Pro: When Having An Agent Isn’t Worth It

LAS VEGAS – J.J. Spaun isn’t, and doesn’t want to be, a rookie anymore. The 27-year-old has just begun his second season on the PGA TOUR and as such expects a whole new level of performance. Spaun had a respectable rookie season in 2016-17 finishing 97th in the FedExCup to retain his playing privileges. But he says the three top-10s from last season is not enough, and is aggressively pursuing his first victory. With a 66-65 opening to the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open at TPC Summerlin he has opened a three-shot gap at the top and intends to keep the foot down. “I’ve had a year’s experience now on the TOUR, and this year it’s kind of just taking my game to the next level instead of just kind of being someone that lingers around the cut or top 20s,â€� he said. “It’s time to step up if I want to do something big out here on TOUR and make a name for myself.â€� Spaun said he fell into the trap of some of the negative associations of being a rookie last season. The little things like tee times and scheduling were getting under his skin more than they should have. But he’s thrown away the excuses now. “You need to kind of grow up. You’re not a baby, you’re not a rookie anymore,â€� he stressed. “You feel like – when you’re a rookie – everything is kind of stacked against you. But now it’s time to actually go to work and put yourself in contention and try to get W’s out here.â€� While not officially the 36-hole leader yet as play was suspended late due to darkness Spaun will almost certainly hold the position. The 36-hole leader/co-leader has gone on to win six of the last 10 Shriners Hospitals for Children Opens.  OBSERVATIONS Robert Garrigus felt like he almost couldn’t miss on the greens as he carded eight birdies on Friday. With just a lone double bogey trying to derail his day Garrigus shot an impressive 65 to move to 7-under for the tournament. The stats backed up his thoughts on the greens as he gained 4.811 strokes on the field putting in the second round to be ranked first in the field. “All in all it was one of the great days –  eight birdies in the wind, made a lot of good putts, hit everything where I was looking today with the putter, and that doesn’t happen very often, so I’m going to cherish this one,â€� he said. Darkness once again halted play before the full round could be completed with 28 players left to finish round two on Saturday morning. As such a cut hasn’t been made. The projected cutline stands at +1 with 80 players currently inside the mark. Those on the bubble include defending champion Rod Pampling and major winners Geoff Ogilvy, Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson. The wind was again a factor although it didn’t pick up quite as much as expected in the afternoon at TPC Summerlin. Even so the morning wave played the par-71 course in a 71.99 average while the unfinished afternoon wave was at 72.98 Aaron Baddeley put on a scrambling masterclass in the wind, getting up and down 9/9 times. The four-time PGA TOUR winner put up a second round 66 to give himself a chance at win number five. He sat five off the lead and in a tie for fourth when play was suspended. “The forecast for tomorrow is going to be super windy so it’s going to be a real patience day,â€� he said.â€� Just sort of picking up a bunch of pars and making some birdies. If we can do that on the weekend, we’ll be in a good spot on Sunday.â€� Kelly Kraft is the lone player who can, albeit unlikely, take away the 36-hole lead from J.J. Spaun. The former U.S. Amateur winner sits 4-under on his round through 15 holes and at 8-under overall to be second alone. His round included an ace on the 5th hole. First round leader Whee Kim battled to a 1-over 72 on Friday but remains in contention in a tie for 6th, six shots off the pace. There were two hole-in-ones on Friday. After just three aces in the first five tournaments of the season Kelly Kraft aced the par-3 5th hole with a 6-iron from 174 yards and Brice Garnett performed the feat on the par-3 14th hole with an 8-iron from 164 yards. The last player to make a hole-in-one on the PGA TOUR and go on to win was Dustin Johnson at the 2015 World Golf Championships-Cadillac Championship QUOTABLES “I always listened to Freddie (Couples) when he told me, when it’s breezy, swing easy. I do have the best job in the world, for me. This is all I can do. Playing golf for a living is a blessing, and the family loves me, so everything is good.â€� – Robert Garrigus after a 65 moved him to 3rd place. “I got a new putter this week. The Ping Ancer. It’s beautiful. I’ve done some string drills on the putting green, which really sort of helped me get the ball started on the right line. Just sort of through that, I let my body adjust and it’s feeling good.â€� – Aaron Baddeley after sitting fourth in Strokes Gained: Putting through his two rounds. He is five shots off the lead in a tie for 4th place. “Once you kind of see a wheel fall off, you can kind of start seeing all the wheels fall off. I kind of did that a little bit last week, but it was a couple of bad breaks. This week I didn’t want that to happen.â€� – J.J. Spaun after he backed up his lone bogey on Friday with two tap in birdies.  SUPERLATIVES Low Round: J.J. Spaun (1st), Robert Garrigus (3rd) and Chesson Hadley (T16) led the way Friday with rounds of 65. Spaun had 7 birdies and a lone bogey, Garrigus had eight birdies and a double bogey while Hadley notched up 7 birdies and an eagle but had three bogeys. Longest Drive: Bubba Watson gave the crowd what they wanted to see with a 393-yard blast off the 9th tee. Longest Putt: South African Rory Sabbatini drained the longest putt of the second round with a 67-foot bomb for birdie on the 10th hole. Sadly it won’t help him make the weekend after a 77. Toughest Hole: For the second day running the par-4 3rd hole played the toughest, yielding just 10 birdies and a 4.303 stroke average. Easiest Hole: The par-5 9th once again proved the place to make your move with 2 eagles and 64 birdies helping it to a 4.592 stroke average. 

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MEXICO CITY – Could no one or nothing stop Justin Thomas? When the FedExCup leader holed his 119-yard approach shot for eagle at the 18th hole, he looked destined to win for the third time this season and the second consecutive week. But Phil Mickelson, the Hall of Famer who hadn’t won in nearly five years, responded in vintage Mickelson style. He made clutch birdies on the 15th and 16th holes to catch Thomas at 16-under, then won the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship with a par on the first hole of a playoff. “I don’t feel that age,â€� Mickelson said when asked about being the oldest player at Club de Golf Chapultepec, at age 47. “I mean, I like it. It’s cool, because not many people at this age are able to play at that level, but I don’t feel that age. My body feels great. My game’s—I’m starting to play some of my best golf. I’m actually hitting some shots better than I ever have in my career.â€� [For more on Mickelson’s victory, click here.] With his fourth straight top-six finish, Mickelson moved from 17th to third in the FedExCup. Thomas, 24, was almost equally impressive. Coming off his second win of the season at The Honda Classic, he went into the weekend at Chapultepec a whopping 11 shots off the lead and seemingly without any hope. Then he shot a course-record 62 in the third round before chasing it with a tidy 64 in the fourth. Since 2010 on the PGA TOUR, the only player to win from 11 back through 36 holes was Aaron Baddeley at the 2016 Barbasol Championship. The numbers were impressive: Thomas made 14 birdies, two eagles and two bogeys on the weekend, holing nearly 200 feet worth of putts. His only regret: the tee shot at 17, a gap wedge that flew too far and left him with a delicate chip shot. He left it well short, and after Mickelson’s birdie try curled around the lip but refused to fall, Thomas missed his par try to extend the playoff. “I’m definitely disappointed,â€� he said. “I wish Phil’s putt just would have gone in so I would have felt better about myself. But I was a little pumped up, and the gap wedge went a lot farther than I thought it was going to. “But man, there’s nothing for me to hang my head about,â€� he added. “To even have a chance to win this golf tournament after where I was through 18, through 36 holes, I’m very proud of myself. I think it’s the most maturity and kind of poise I’ve shown in a tournament I’ve ever played.â€� NOTABLES TYRRELL HATTON – Reached 16-under with an eagle at the par-5 15th hole, but came up short with his approach on 18 and missed a 10-foot par putt to finish a shot out of the playoff. His T3 finish is his best on TOUR in 26 starts; his previous best was a T4 at The Honda Classic and the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard in 2017. KIRADECH APHIBARNRAT – Thai superstar fired a final-round 65 to match his low round on TOUR, and his T5 matched the best finish by a Thai in a WGC event. (Thongchai Jaidee, T5, 2010 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.) Aphibarnrat has 150 non-member FedExCup points and can seek Special Temporary Membership on TOUR if he matches the points earned by No. 150 in last season’s FedExCup standings (269 by Rick Lamb). RAFA CABRERA BELLO – He was seeking his first TOUR victory in his 57th career start, and made a strong run with an eagle at the first and three birdies in his last six holes. Signed for a final-round 67, and his T3 was his best WGC finish since he beat Rory McIlroy 3 and 2 in the consolation match at the 2016 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play. BRIAN HARMAN – Continued an incredibly consistent season with a T5 representing his sixth top-10. Two-time TOUR winner was making his WGC-Mexico debut. DUSTIN JOHNSON – Defending champ shot 69 and had four rounds in the 60s, but finished four out of the playoff in a tie for seventh.  SHUBHANKAR SHARMA – Became the darling of Chapultepec while taking a two-shot lead into the final round, but nerves showed up on the greens as he shot 3-over 74 to finish T9. He made four bogeys on his last six holes, but his world ranking will move from 75th to 66th, ever closer to qualifying for the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play (top 64) and the Masters (top 50). QUOTABLES If you would have asked me four months ago that I would be playing with Phil at a WGC on the last day, I would have just laughed.I know what a great player Mr. Sharma is. I probably shouldn’t say that. He’s 26 years younger than me.Every World Golf Championship delivers. The best players in the world come and play them, and it’s pretty normal that at the end of the week the best players in the world are at the top. SUPERLATIVES Low round: 7-under 64 by playoff runner-up Justin Thomas. Longest drive: 393 yds (Bubba Watson/No. 10) Longest putt: 45’ 11â€� (Brian Harman/No. 9, birdie) Toughest hole: Par-4 8th (4.277) Easiest hole: Par-5 15th (4.414)

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Voting has now been completed for the Round of 16 and quarterfinals of our Mythical Match Play Championship. That means we’re down to the final four players from the original field of 64, leaving us with these two semifinal matches: • Rory McIlroy vs. Xander Schauffele • Jon Rahm vs. Sungjae Im Our fans helped to break three ties in the Round of 16 matches. With our 10 expert voters deadlocked at 5-5 for matches involving Schauffele vs. Hideki Matsuyama, Im vs. Collin Morikawa and Rahm vs. Marc Leishman, we enlisted the help of fans via the Twitter account of the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play. Schauffele, Im and Rahm earned the nods, and now they’ve each won another match to joine the world’s No. 1 player as the four survivors after clear-cut voting from the experts in the quarterfinals. Our Mythical event is the just-for-fun exercise we’re conducting this week in lieu of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, which was among the canceled events by the PGA TOUR in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The TOUR conducted a draw to produce a bracket, and now our 10 experts are voting for the winner of each match. We released the Round 1 results on Wednesday (click here), the Round 2 results on Thursday (click here) and the Round 3 results on Friday (click here) that determined the 16 survivors advancing to the single-elimination phase. We’ll crown the Mythical Match Play champion on Sunday. The voting rules are simple: Each expert was asked to pick a match winner, and the golfer with the majority of votes is the match winner. Our 10 expert voters include: GolfBet’s Jason Sobel from The Action Network; GolfTV’s Jamie Kennedy; Tom Alter and Jim McCabe from PGA TOUR Communications; Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton; PGATOUR.COM writers Ben Everill, Sean Martin, Mike McAllister and Cameron Morfit; and a combined vote from the TOUR’s ShotLink team. The results of all quarterfinals and Round of 16 matches are below (player seeds in parentheses). QUARTERFINALS Rory McIlroy (1) vs. Webb Simpson (9): 7 votes for McIlroy, 3 votes for Simpson. McILROY wins. Why I picked McIlroy: “I was surprised to see the injured Oosthuizen advance — I had him going 0-3-0 in his pool — so not only is McIlroy in better form than everyone else, he’s also more rested to face anyone later in the same day, much less Simpson, who grinded past Patrick Cantlay in the Round of 16.” – Rob Bolton Justin Thomas (4) vs. Xander Schauffele (12): 6 votes for Schauffele, 4 votes for Thomas. SCHAUFFELE wins. Why I picked Schauffele: “Statistically, these two are so close. In five of the six Strokes Gained categories, they are within 6 ranking positions of each other. Ultimately, I based my decision on Sunday Singles at the Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne. Schauffele knocked off the biggest homegrown star in Adam Scott, while JT lost to young Aussie Cameron Smith.â€� – Mike McAllister Jon Rahm (2) vs. Patrick Reed (7): 6 votes for Rahm, 4 votes for Reed. RAHM wins. Why I picked Rahm: “While Reed is incredibly tough in match play, so, too, is this Spanish star who has previously been threatening to win it all at Austin CC. A 30-foot birdie on 18 seals a 1-up win.â€� – Ben Everill Adam Scott (6) vs. Sungjae Im (23): 6 votes for Im, 4 votes for Scott. IM wins. Why I picked Im: “I’ll take golfing machine Im over Scott, whose putting admittedly deserts him at times.â€� – Cameron Morfit ROUND OF 16 RESULTS Rory McIlroy (1) vs. Louis Oosthuizen (19): 9 votes for McIlroy, 1 vote for Oosthuizen. MCILROY wins. Why I picked McIlroy: “Oosthuizen is terrific at match play, but he can’t match the No. 1 player in the world. Rory rolls into the quarterfinals.â€� – Tom Alter Patrick Cantlay (8) vs. Webb Simpson (9): 7 votes for Simpson, 3 votes for Cantlay. SIMPSON wins. Why I picked Simpson: “Simpson simply looks like he knows every putt is going in.â€� – Jim McCabe Justin Thomas (4) vs. Ian Poulter (58): 8 votes for Thomas, 2 votes for Poulter. THOMAS wins. Why I picked Thomas: “Even though Poulter is the guy with the long-term reputation for stepping it up in match play events, Thomas is a sneaky 10-3-2 over the last three years of Ryder/Presidents Cup competitions, proving his skills translate well to this format.â€� – Jason Sobel Xander Schauffele (12) vs. Hideki Matsuyama (22): 5 votes for Schauffele, 5 votes for Matsuyama. Fan voting: 61% for Schauffele, 39% for Matsuyama. SCHAUFFELE wins. Why I picked Schauffele: “Xander is a pit-bull who waits for the slightest scrap and attacks. The first missed putt from Hideki would provide Schauffele a lead he would never relinquish.â€� – Ben Everill Jon Rahm (2) vs. Marc Leishman (15): 5 votes for Rahm, 5 votes for Leishman. Fan voting: 75% for Rahm, 25% for Leishman. RAHM wins. Why I picked Rahm: “Leishman is a tough match play guy with two trips to the round of 16 in the last three years, but 2017 runner-up Rahm is so comfy in Austin, he looks destined to win this tournament someday.â€� – Cameron Morfit Patrick Reed (7) vs. Tommy Fleetwood (10): 6 votes for Reed, 4 votes for Fleetwood. REED wins. Why we picked Reed: “Both players are really similar in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green ranking T-38 (Reed) and 34th (Fleetwood). However, Reed has a huge edge on and around the greens, ranking 38th in SG: Around-the-Green & third in SG: Putting to Fleetwood’s 176th SG: Around-the-Green & 96th in SG: Putting. Reed has Fleetwood by over a stroke on and around the greens per round this season on TOUR.â€� – ShotLink team Sungjae Im (23) vs. Collin Morikawa (44): 5 votes for Im, 5 votes for Morikawa. Fan voting: 56% for Im, 44% for Morikawa. IM wins. Why I picked Im: “Quite the battle among two of the PGA TOUR’s biggest and brightest young stars. This one comes down to putting – Im ranks 36th in Strokes Gained: Putting this season while Morikawa ranks 174th.â€� – Mike McAllister Adam Scott (6) vs. Tiger Woods (11): 9 votes for Scott, 1 vote for Woods. SCOTT wins. Why I picked Scott: “Having not played a lot in recent weeks, a fourth straight match for Tiger could catch up with him. Scott’s putting has improved drastically in the last 18 months and that helps him knock off the Masters champ.â€� – Jamie Kennedy

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