What to watch for Sunday at the PGA Championship

He started this FedEx Cup out in front, giving him the benefit of a few shots on the field at the Tour Championship. Even though Xander Schauffele has played better so far in this the FedEx Cup finale, it likely won’t matter.

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Since he won the Barracuda Championship in a playoff on Sunday, Chris Stroud has received 1,400 text messages, 55 voicemails and another 100 or so emails. And he has replied to every single one. “I’m a big believer in that,â€� Stroud said. “I told a few guys after golf is gone and done for me, all you have left is people and the relationships you have. I care more about people than I do about my golf. I was raised that way. I’m grateful. I’m grateful to have a chance to play on the TOUR and stay healthy.â€� The victory, which was the first of Stroud’s career, enabled him to jump 68 spots on the FedExCup list to 76th to secure his playing privileges for two more years. He’s also headed to Maui in January to play in the SBS Tournament of Champions for the first time. The win also prompted another change in travel plans – landing him in the PGA Championship. And he made the most of the opportunity, shooting a 68 that left him one stroke off the lead held jointly by Thorbjorn Olesen and Kevin Kisner. “Today was one of the easiest rounds,â€� Stroud said. “Obviously I’m playing well. I’m swinging it nicely and putting it well. That has a lot to do with it. It’s a deep confidence that I have.â€� Stroud says his caddie was instrumental in Sunday’s victory and played a big role in Thursday’s round, which was the only bogey-free one of the day. Whenever Stroud starts talking about golf these days, his caddie switches the subject. “We talk about science,â€� Stroud said. “We talk about spirituality, baseball, football, Texans, Houston Astros. Anything to keep my mind off golf. As soon as I hit it, I’m talking about something else. If I say something he goes, hey, hey, hey, we don’t care about golf. “It’s just an experiment we tried last week and it absolutely worked.â€� Stroud, who had been on the road for five weeks, had actually planned to go home to Houston this week to see his wife and their two daughters. Next week he was headed to Greensboro to play in the Wyndham Championship. Instead, he and his caddie drove 2 hours from Reno, Nevada, to Sacramento on Sunday night and bought two first-class tickets to Charlotte. He got in late Monday night and slept until about 11 a.m. “I couldn’t tell what time it was,â€� he said. “Open the curtains and it’s bright. I went to bed at like 2.â€� As nice as the texts and emails and phone messages were, Stroud’s parents flew to North Carolina on Wednesday to surprise him. “We had our celebration dinner last night, just us three,â€� the Texan said. “It was a dream. When I was 9 years old, I knew I wanted to be on the PGA TOUR. I got into college, I was 17, 18 years old. I knew I had a chance to be really good and get on the TOUR. “When I got out here, obviously my dream was to win and be as good as I can. It’s at least a 20-year dream come true.â€� At the same time, Stroud admits that he had gotten to the point where he could accept that he’d had a solid career – regardless of what happened. Of course, he wanted to win but he finally realized that he was getting in his own way. “About six months ago I said you know what, I’ve had 10 years of good runs out here,â€� Stroud said. “I’ve played well. I don’t care if I win anymore. I want to win but I can’t let that be on my shoulders all the time. I’m not going to worry about it. “I’m going to play the best I can and let’s just ride this out. I don’t know if I’m good enough. I don’t know if I’m good enough to win or keep my card. And since I surrendered to that, it’s like all of a sudden things got — the weight is off my shoulders. “All these people have told me this for years. To actually do that, I had to get to the bottom to figure that out. I literally just said you know what I’m done. I’m just going to do the best I can and have as much fun as I can. “All of a sudden it falls in my lap.â€�

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RENO, Nevada — During a post-round conversation on Thursday lasting slightly less than four brutally honest minutes, Bill Haas pulled no punches when describing the current state of his golf game. The sound bites included such things as: “I’m frustrated.� “It’s been a disappointing year in a lot of ways.� “This year I’ve been below average.� “I don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.� Haas has every justification for feeling this way. Regarded as one of the PGA TOUR’s most consistent performers during the last decade, the 2011 FedExCup champ is experiencing his first sub-par season. Consider this: Just one top-10 finish in 22 starts, the fewest since his rookie season in 2007. Three top-25 finishes, the fewest ever since joining the PGA TOUR. Nine missed cuts, most since 2009. That year was the last time he did not play in the Masters and The Open Championship — until this year. It was also the last time he failed to qualify for the majority of the World Golf Championships events. As a result, Haas entered this week’s Barracuda Championship with his FedExCup Playoffs streak in jeopardy. He’s one of 13 players who have made the Playoffs in each of the first 11 years, but right now he’s 145th in points and needs a big move down the stretch to climb inside the top 125 following the Wyndham Championship. Just as alarming, Haas is in danger of losing his full status on TOUR. His five-year exemption for winning the FedExCup expired two years ago, and his exemption for his last TOUR win (in 2015) expired last season. Unless he makes the Playoffs this season, he’d have to play out of the Past Champion category — or he could try to regain his card through the Web.com Tour Finals. “My goal obviously is to try to make the Playoffs and do some good there,� the 36-year-old Haas said. “But I just haven’t played well enough to put myself in a good position to do that. That’s the reason I’m here. “Hopefully these next couple of weeks, I can figure something out.� He’s been trying to do that for quite some time now, alas with no success. Some may point to the mid-February car crash during Genesis Open week when Haas’ golf game started to suffer. Haas was a passenger in a car driven by a member of the host family in which he was staying that week. The driver, 71-year-old Mark Gibello, died on the scene, and Haas immediately withdrew from the tournament, to heal the physical wounds to his legs as well as the mental wounds from the tragic death of a friend. Haas returned a month later and soon posted his only top-10 of the season, a T-7 at the RBC Heritage. He said Thursday that his current struggles have nothing to do with the accident. “Nothing that certainly give me a reason I shouldn’t be able to play good golf,� he said. “I don’t think I was the same right afterwards physically, but I think I’ve worked my way through that.� In truth, his results had been trending poorly before the accident. He missed his last cut of the 2017 calendar year at The RSM Classic (perhaps a foreshadow, as he usually plays well in that event), then missed his first two cuts upon resuming his schedule in 2018. Generally a fast starter, he was already outside the top 125 bubble going into Riviera; never before in his FedExCup career had he been lower than 70 at that point of the season. As to what specifically has gone wrong in Haas’ game, well, pretty much everything. In Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green, he currently ranks 107th. In the previous five seasons, he’s never ranked lower than 34th, and in his career, he’s previous low ranking was 75th. He also ranks 161st in Strokes Gained: Putting, again his career-worst ranking in that category. “The putting hasn’t been good, without question,� Haas said. “This year, I have not been sharp hitting the golf ball. If you don’t hit it good and you don’t putt well, then you’re not going to do well. It’s just something I’m trying to work through and figure out. But if I knew the answer, I wouldn’t do it. I would do better. “I’ve always been average at everything, you know? I’ve always been pretty good. But this year, I’ve been below average at my iron game, my putting, my chipping hasn’t been as good. I think there was one year my irons weren’t as sharp, but I was one of the top ones in scrambling. If you hit bad irons but scramble well, it doesn’t really matter. But when all facets of your game are struggling, it adds up to some missed cuts.� Adding to his frustration is that he’s not even seeing incremental improvement, despite all the time and energy he’s devoted to finding a solution. “I feel like I’ve worked harder this year than I’ve ever worked and I haven’t seen the results,� Haas said. “That’s been the hardest thing and that’s what I’m struggling with. I don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, but that’s the reason I’m going to keep working at it today and tomorrow and hopefully something clicks.� Unfortunately, it did not click for Haas on Thursday. His round started out promising — two birdies in his first three holes, as he knocked his tee shot at the par-3 11th to 10 feet, then hit his approach at the par-4 12th to inside 6 feet. But he couldn’t ride the momentum, failing to capitalize on a couple of other opportunities. His round then stalled before losing steam completely at the finish, with two bogeys in his last three holes. On his last hole of the day, the par-4 ninth, he hit a terrific drive, 304 yards to the middle of the fairway. But with a sand wedge from 123 yards, he found a greenside bunker and failed to get up and down. Finishing with five points in the Modified Stableford scoring system, he’ll have to make up ground Friday in order to reach the weekend. Otherwise, he’ll leave Montreux with no FedExCup points and presumably drop a few more spots in the standings. All in all, Thursday pretty much reflected the entire frustrating, perplexing season for one of the TOUR’s most consistent and gentlemanly players. “It’s golf,� Haas said, throwing one last punch at himself, “and it’s beating me right now.�

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