What’s in Will Zalatoris’ bag?

GREENSBORO, N.C. – There’s a lot on the line at this week’s Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club. The top 125 in the FedExCup standings advance to the Playoffs next week and the Wyndham Rewards Top 10 competition will be decided. Here’s a quick look at each one after Thursday’s opening round, played under cloudy skies and halted at 6:08 p.m. by a thunderstorm with 33 players on the course. Players will return to complete the first round at 7 a.m. ET and the second round will begin as scheduled. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Simpson, Todd feed off friendly energy | Three share lead after Round 1 FedExCup Update At stake: The 125 spots in the upcoming FedExCup Playoffs. Players who finish outside the top 125 after this week will see their seasons end. Unlike in past seasons, though, all players who were exempt this year will retain their eligibility for the 2020-21 campaign due to the schedule reduction caused by COVID-19. Latest projections: Roger Sloan, Chesson Hadley and Hank Lebioda – who was playing the 17th hole when play was halted — are currently projected to move into the top 125 while Fabian Gomez, Russell Knox and bubble boy Charl Schwartzel are projected to drop out. … Of those, Roger Sloan, who is in a three-way tie for the lead, made the biggest move, jumping from No. 178 to 49th. … Hadley, who lives in nearby Raleigh and is tied for fifth after a 65, is projected to make a 26-spot jump to No. 110. … Leboida, who is also currently in the logjam at 5 under, had jumped 22 spots to No. 116 when play was halted … Gomez has fallen four spots to No. 126, Knox has dropped three to No. 127 and Schwartzel has dropped three to No. 128. … Seven of the last 10 players who came to Sedgefield ranked No. 125 have advanced to the Playoffs but the three who were eliminated have been in the last four years. … Sloan said he doesn’t feel as much pressure as he might have this week given that he has a card for next season – regardless of what happens. “Now, with that being said, you know, obviously I really want to be in the Playoffs next week, I want to make a good push,” he said after shooting 62. “We’re starting to play some really good golf so I think you can string together a few really good weeks at the right time of year and make a little bit of noise at the right time.” Stuck in neutral: Brooks Koepka was ranked 208th in the FedExCup when the PGA TOUR returned to action after the three-month layoff due to COVID-19. The Wyndham Championship is his eighth straight tournament. … His tie for second at the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational moved him from No. 155 to 96th. Koepka came to Greensboro ranked No. 92 hoping to give himself a boost as he tries to make it to the finale in Atlanta for the fifth time in six years. … But he said he came out flat on Thursday, shooting a 2-over 72 to fall one spot. Even so, Koepka said he never thought about taking a week off. … “Not really, because I thought even if I gain one spot in the FedEx, it makes it that much easier for next week, so you’ve got to play, see where you’re at,” he said. “I mean, I don’t think I’ve ever played more than four in a row pretty much out here. It will be quite a long stretch, but I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do.” Wyndham Rewards Top 10 At stake: The top 10 spots in the FedExCup standings and its bonus pool money of $10 million. Justin Thomas already has wrapped up the top prize of $2 million. There was no movement in the top 10 on Thursday. Webb Simpson, who has two wins this season, remains in third after opening with a 66. Fifth-ranked Sungjae Im shot 1 under while No. 6 Patrick Reed, the 2013 Wyndham Championship winner, shot 65. Brendon Todd, who has also won twice this year, shot 68 and stays in the No. 9 spot.

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SOUTHAMPTON, Bermuda — Brandon Hagy and Chad Ramey avoided the worst of the wind Thursday afternoon, each with a 6-under 65 to share the lead in the Butterfield Bermuda Championship when the opening round at Port Royal was halted by darkness. RELATED: Leaderboard | Weather maintains advantage, but rules staff makes it fair contest | ‘Brutal’ wind and rain lead to wild day in Bermuda For those who started in the morning, it might have been easier playing in the dark. “You see winds like this, but normally you don’t play in them,” said Matt Fitzpatrick of England, who had every right to be satisfied with his even-par 71. The wind and spots of heavy rain were so fierce that play was suspended briefly in the morning. And while it eased slightly in the afternoon, the gusts were strong enough that short putts were nervy and judging the distance on approach shots was key. Ramey managed to finish off a bogey-free round right before play was halted. Hagy made nine birdies to offset his bogeys, one of which was a 2-foot par putt he missed on the par-5 seventh hole. There was not much he could do about it — that was largely due to a gust. Vincent Whaley had a 66, while Congaree Palmetto Championship winner Garrick Higgo, Seamus Power of Ireland and Danny Lee were among those at 67. The group at 68 included Patrick Reed. He opened with three straight birdies only to give most of it back with a double bogey. This was a day for flighting the ball, such as the chip 8-iron from 118 yards. For so much of the day, the actual yardage was irrelevant. Reed was coming off a bogey on the 16th when he drove into a hazard on the par-5 17th. He took a penalty drop, and then hit 6-iron that plopped down near the hole and dropped for a most unusual eagle. His playing partners, Higgo and Willett, all drove into the hazard on the 17th and they managed to collectively play the hole in 3 under. When play was stopped, 33 players were under par, some having to return Friday morning to complete the first round. Only six of those scores under par came from the morning. Russell Knox, who grew up near Inverness in Scotland, was among the early starters and had few complaints with a 72. He was happy to be standing up. “We were down on the ground holding an umbrella. My fingers were cramping I’m holding on so tight, and it was pouring rain as hard as it’s ever rained,” he said. “It was an interesting day.” Hagy got a sense of that when he started in the afternoon and saw so few scores under par. Greyson Sigg and Austin Eckroat had the best rounds of the early starters at 68. They played with Seth Reeves, who had a 69. They represented half of the scores under par from the morning side of the draw. “I think it laid down a little bit for us, but it was still pretty stout,” Hagy said. “But I hit a lot of good putts and they went in. I think there’s going to be some times where you get gusts and the ball doesn’t go in, but you kind of have to keep your head down and keep trying to hit some good shots.” It’s already been a week like no other at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship, which is offering full FedExCup points because it is not opposite the World Golf Championships event in Shanghai, canceled for the second straight year because of the pandemic. That means the winner gets a TOUR card for three years and an invite to the Masters, and only four players in the field already are eligible for Augusta National in April. Brian Gay, the defending champion, was bumped from his flight to Bermuda because the plane was too heavy. He arrived on Tuesday afternoon and didn’t get to play a practice round when the pro-am was canceled. Gay opened with a 75. “We definitely got the easier part of the day there in the afternoon, but it’s still a strong enough wind that your score could get away from you if you lost control of your ball,” Power said. “Hanging in there was the thing today.”

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