Updates: Tiger at U.S. Open, Round 2

JACKSON, Miss.  – The transition to pro golf can be a tough one, even for a player whose physical talents drew comparisons to Tiger Woods. Sub-par scores almost always spell success in college golf. They can lead to missed cuts at the highest level. Players who felt unbeatable competing against their peers can lose confidence when they start losing to men who are old enough to be their father. Norman Xiong learned that after turning pro this summer. When he arrived at this week’s Sanderson Farms Championship, where he’s playing on a sponsor exemption, he’d missed all six of his cuts as a pro. “When I turned pro, it was a little bit overwhelming, I guess,� Xiong said. “I think I’ve done a really good job of learning and getting used to it.� He didn’t just make his first cut this week. He was atop the leaderboard after shooting 67 on Friday. He sits at 9-under 135 after two rounds at the Country Club of Jackson. Xiong, 19, is leading a PGA TOUR event while his high-school classmates are early in their sophomore years of college. If he can win, he’d be a day older than Jordan Spieth was when he claimed the 2013 John Deere Classic. Spieth was the youngest PGA TOUR winner since Ralph Guldahl in 1931. A newfound strength – his short game – has carried Xiong over two rounds played in cold, windy conditions at this century-old layout. Like many of his peers, Xiong plays aggressively off the tee, opting for driver despite the Country Club of Jackson’s penal Bermuda rough. It’s paid off on the par-5s, which he has played in 6 under par, including an eagle on Friday’s second hole. The 55-footer he holed from the fringe on that hole was one of three hole-outs for Xiong on Friday. He also saved par all seven times he missed a green in the second round. Xiong has hit 11 greens in each of the first two rounds but has saved par on all but one occasion. He leads the field in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green. He chipped in on No. 16 and holed another putt from the fringe on the sixth hole. Xiong also holed a 56-foot birdie putt Thursday. Xiong said his short game used to be a weakness, but it has improved since employing coach Josh Gregory after turning pro. Bermudagrass poses unique challenges, especially to those who grew up outside the Southeast. Gregory has helped Xiong, who grew up in Southern California before attending the University of Oregon, change his clubhead path on chip shots. Xiong’s club was closed and traveling to the left through impact. Now he feels like he’s drawing his chip shots. A strong short game is a helpful addition to an impressive repertoire of physical skills. “At 19 years old, I think Tiger is the only guy I would defer to as being better than Norman. I haven’t seen much better than him at that age. He’s really that good,� Oregon head coach Casey Martin said in a GolfChannel.com profile earlier this year. Martin was teammates with Woods at Stanford. Xiong turned pro this year as college golf’s consensus player of the year. He won both the Jack Nicklaus and Fred Haskins awards, which are given to the top player in college golf. He won six times in his sophomore season, including four of his final six starts. Xiong already is ahead of the curve. He came to Oregon a semester early, halfway through his senior year of high school, and immediately entered the Ducks’ lineup. He was the national freshman of the year in just half a season. He entered the lineup immediately and won in his third start. Amateur accomplishments can help secure big endorsement deals and sponsor exemptions, but they are meaningless once the tee is in the ground. The score is all that matters. Xiong saw that this summer. He shot under par in his first four stroke-play starts on the PGA TOUR. He received nothing for his efforts, missing the cut all four times. He also missed the cut in the Barracuda Championship, which uses a Stableford format, and the European Tour’s Alfred Dunhill Links. “It was very frustrating,� he said. “I felt as though my whole game was really solid.� Xiong recently saw success a month ago at the first stage of Web.com Tour Q-School, shooting 16 under par to share medalist honors. He is scheduled to play the second stage next week in California but can change his site if he qualifies for next week’s Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. Of course, a win means he can scrap the whole Q-School quest. He’s halfway there.

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ATLANTA – Brooks Koepka has the confidence to pose for nude photos. He has the composure to withstand the final-round pressure in golf’s biggest events. There may not be a more intimidating figure in the game today. But Koepka admitted that he was “freaking outâ€� about his game on Tuesday. He was in “full-panic modeâ€� on Thursday after sailing a tee shot 75 yards right of the 10th fairway. And yet, Koepka is the leader at the halfway point of the TOUR Championship. He was trailing Justin Thomas by three shots when play got underway at East Lake. Now Koepka is one stroke ahead of Thomas and Rory McIlroy with 36 holes remaining in the season finale. Xander Schauffele is two back. Related: Leaderboard | Casey pulls wrong club on 18 | Koepka discusses Body Issue After winning three times this season, including a major and World Golf Championship, Koepka has all but clinched a second consecutive Player of the Year Award. He’s two days from authoring the perfect ending to another dominant season. Koepka said late Friday his game is headed in the right direction heading into the weekend. He made that statement with his words and two 5-irons he hit on East Lake’s closing holes. The first came on the 229-yard 15th, where he laced his tee shot to the middle of the island green to set up a two-putt par on the day’s most difficult hole. Three holes later, he scared the hole with his 239-yard second shot, leaving himself just 9 feet for eagle. He missed the putt, but the birdie was enough to take the solo lead. Koepka shot 67 in each of the first two rounds at East Lake. “I feel better. I don’t feel like I’m clicking 100%, but it’s definitely close,â€� Koepka said. “There are shots where it’s like, ‘How did I just do that?’ And there are some shots where I’m like, ‘Man, why can’t I do that every time,’ like on 18.â€� He’ll play alongside Thomas in Saturday’s final group. The pairing will feature the past two PGA TOUR Players of the Year. Two years ago, Thomas’ capped a five-win campaign with a FedExCup triumph. He didn’t win the TOUR Championship, finishing second to Schauffele, but still claimed the season-long prize. That scenario doesn’t exist anymore. Under this year’s new format, the man atop the leaderboard Sunday afternoon will win both the FedExCup and TOUR Championship. Thomas shot 70-68 on Thursday and Friday, but is just one back thanks to the starting strokes he was awarded as the leader of the FedExCup. He won last week’s BMW Championship to take the top spot in the FedExCup standings. That earned him a two-stroke lead over the field at the start of the week. “I thought it was going to be easy for me to just play a tournament. It wasn’t. At least for me it wasn’t,â€� Thomas said about playing Thursday with a pre-tournament lead. “I thought it was difficult to stay aggressive, but then again, I wasn’t driving it very well, so I couldn’t be aggressive. “I don’t know, it was odd, but today definitely felt more normal.â€� He drove the ball better Friday, but his momentum was interrupted by a weather delay that hit just as the final groups were making the turn. Thomas and Koepka were both 13 under, and three shots clear of the field, when play was halted. Thomas missed just one fairway on the front nine while focusing on shortening his backswing. He only hit one on the back nine, though, and failed to make a birdie. He had to scramble just to shoot 1-over 36 on the last nine. There was a flop shot to save par on the 15th, and then a good bogey save at the 17th, where he bladed a fairway-bunker shot over the green. He missed a 6-foot birdie putt on the last hole after a good wedge shot. “It would be hard for me to say that (the delay) didn’t kind of stop my momentum because I was playing really flawlessly, I felt like, that front nine,â€� Thomas said. He has hit less than half his fairways this week (13 of 28) to rank 25th in the 30-man field in driving accuracy. He insists he’s driving it better than the statistics indicate, but the rough is so penal at East Lake that one foot can make a big difference. He had to lay up on 18 after his tee shot just trickled into the rough. “That’s the difference between me being able to hit a 4-iron and trying to make a 3 and then I’m just trying to get it over the water,â€� Thomas said. “That’s a big difference at East Lake.â€� Thomas and McIlroy are trying to join Tiger Woods as the only two-time champions in the FedExCup’s 12-year history. McIlroy won the TOUR Championship and FedExCup in 2016. He started the week five off the lead but shot 66-67 in the first two rounds. McIlroy finished Friday’s round by saving par from a greenside bunker on 16, sinking a 15-foot birdie putt on 17 and hitting a 25-yard chip to 3 feet for a closing birdie. “When they cleared the course. I was even par, sort of neutral, a nice thing for me to reset, and I thought, ‘OK, let’s give myself a goal here. Let’s play the last nine holes at 3 under par,’ and I was able to do that. It worked nicely for me.â€� McIlroy has 13 top-10s this season, including wins at THE PLAYERS and RBC Canadian Open. He leads the TOUR in Strokes Gained: Total, as well. He said before the tournament started that he believes a FedExCup victory could give him a case for the Player of the Year Award. He’ll have to earn it, though. Three of the game’s top players sit atop the leaderboard as the TOUR Championship heads to the weekend.

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The Charity Challenge presented by MGM Resorts, a televised nine-hole charity exhibition at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas, will take place on Wednesday, Oct. 14 from 5-7 p.m. ET that will benefit Shriners Hospitals for Children and MGM Resorts Foundation. Bubba Watson and Rickie Fowler will team up against Kevin Na and Byeong Hun An on the back nine at Shadow Creek. HOW TO WATCH PGA TOUR LIVE: 5-7 p.m. ET TV: GOLF Channel; GOLFTV Other: PGA TOUR social channels. Notes on format: The format of the exhibition will be a points-based, four-ball game with each player playing his own ball. After each hole, the low ball will be awarded one point and the team with the lowest combined score will earn one point. Players can win extra points for birdies, sandies, eagles, albatrosses and holes-in-one. The two-man team with the most points after nine holes wins. There will also be two challenge holes during the exhibition for players to help secure additional funds for both Shriners Hospitals for Children and MGM Resorts Foundation. When players arrive at the par-3 17th hole, there will be a Closest-to-the-Pin Challenge sponsored by Michelob Ultra followed by a Longest Drive Challenge sponsored by Redbull at the par-5 18th hole.

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