Who’s going to win the 2018 U.S. Open?

As kids, Henrik Stenson and Emma Lofgren frequently played in the same junior golf tournaments. In fact, they both made the same Swedish national team one year. But the team photo, resurrected by the couple years later, hardly foreshadows what was to come. The future husband and wife were sitting in opposite corners of the frame. “It’s kind of funny,’â€� Emma says. “We knew of each other, but we didn’t really know each other. It was interesting to see it afterwards.â€� She even remembers eating breakfast with her mother once at a hotel before a match play tournament. Henrik came over and asked if he could join them. Of course, mother and daughter said yes. “When we went out to the parking lot and he took off in his BMW, my mom turned around and said, Emma, that is the guy for you,â€� she recalls. Emma, however, was more embarrassed by her mother’s words than smitten – at least at the time. “Mom, you’re the biggest goofball,â€� Emma recalls saying. “That will never happen. Just let it go. You know how you are with your mom.â€� The summer after her freshman year at South Carolina, though, things changed. One of Emma’s friends was dating one of Henrik’s buddies and the two found themselves at the same dinner party. Casual dates, often with friends, as is the custom in Sweden, followed. Their first was to an amusement park. But Emma soon had to return to Columbia, South Carolina for her sophomore year, and the more than 4,500 miles between them was daunting for the budding relationship. “This was 1997,â€� she recalls. “You didn’t have cell phones or Skype or anything like that. I just told him I would call when I got there.’ Emma was busy when she returned to USC, though. About two weeks later, armed with her international calling card, she found a phone booth and dialed Henrik’s number. “He’s like, what’s going on? Why have you not called me?â€� Emma recalls. Only later did she learn that while she was incommunicado Henrik had a bit of a meltdown at a team event back home. “For some reason he wasn’t really mentally there that week because I hadn’t called him in two weeks,’ Emma says, adding that after he and his partner both hit balls out-of-bounds on the same hole, “I think he ditched his pull cart in a little pond.â€� Their shared love of golf wasn’t the only attraction for the couple, though. Even when they were teenagers, Emma found Henrik, who is known to be a bit of a prankster, to be less superficial than many of the guys she dated. “At that age when it’s hormones and you’re 17, 18, 19, it’s all about looks and how you are,â€� she says. “He just kind of went much deeper than that. We had really good conversation. We had lots of stuff in common. It took me a while to be sure, of course, when you are that young. When you are that age, you shoot for the good-looking guys or the exciting guys that are going to take you for a spin. “I think I was kind of passed that stage in my life. I had too many bad experiences. He really interested me and still does because he’s not like everybody else.â€� For the next three years, Henrik came to Columbia as often as he could between tournaments to be with Emma. Puggy Blackmon, who coached the Gamecocks at the time, let Henrik practice with his team. “He was with me for two or three weeks, and then he went off to Argentina and China to play events,â€� Emma remembers. “… I think it is the best setup for the life we live today.â€� Emma had pro aspirations of her own, though, and even tried to qualify for the Ladies European Tour. When that didn’t work out, she got certified to teach, which she did in the summers. Winters often found her traveling to places like Australia and New Zealand where she would caddy for her husband. “What I did was basically try to keep everything intact when it comes to the bag and keep the pace, and mostly just mentally try to keep him happy,â€� Emma says. “I stayed away from doing his yardage when I caddied as it would not have been great if I made a mistake with the numbers. “So he did his stuff and I carried the bag in 99 percent humidity and 110 degrees in Malaysia.â€� As Henrik progressed – he won three times in his first full season on the Challenge Tour – a professional caddie became a must. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t times when Emma, who can be found in her husband’s gallery whenever she travels with him, would like to get back inside the ropes. “I could never do what they do when it comes to numbers and knowing the course, but sometimes I just wish I could jump into the caddie’s head and just give my husband a little kick in the butt,â€� Emma says. “I know his body language so well. I wish I could sometimes be there, as well, to kind of just say the right things when I see that he needs something. “I know as a wife he can really not fire me or be upset as much as he could with his caddie.â€� The couple was together 10 years before they got married on New Year’s Eve in 2006. They were living in Dubai at the time, and visa issues prompted the wedding, a three-day affair for 70 guests with golf and parties that was planned in a mere three months. “We never really had a down on one knee, I love you, do you want to marry me (moment),â€� Emma says. “It was kind of more, okay, this is what we need to do to make it work. “We don’t do much of the romance in our family, but it worked out pretty well anyway.â€� Henrik and Emma, who split time between their homes in Florida and Sweden, now have three children. Henrik has been extraordinarily successful – winning the FedExCup in 2013 and the Open Championship three years later, closing with a 63 in a memorable duel with Phil Mickelson. Henrik’s sixth PGA TOUR victory came just last month at the Wyndham Championship. He also has 11 on the European Tour and twice won the Race to Dubai. Emma says she’s excited to put the spoils of victory in their trophy case because she knows the sacrifice behind each win. “I love the game of golf so much that I really have enjoyed our journey together,â€� she says. “I go to the tournaments to watch him play golf and really enjoy the competition that he goes through. I always kind of get a kick out of it, as well. I enjoy as much as probably he does in that sense. “So it’s never been weird or awkward — I’ve been his biggest supporter in that sense. As a golfer, I’ve probably walked most golf courses in the world and not played them. To have such a talent that he has and some of the guys on TOUR have, it’s so rare.â€� And of course, no one knows a TOUR player better than his wife. So now that you know a little more about this special couple, Emma gives us 18 things you might not know about the former FedExCup champ. 1. As a child Henrik loved counting money which was mostly earned from selling newspapers in the neighborhood on the weekends. 2. Henrik loves a good deal! Once he went on-line and ordered a bicycle from China. But the bank blocked the charge on our credit card because they thought it was fraud. So, he never got it – but that’s not a bad thing because the bike had to be assembled and if it had ever shown up at our house it would definitely still be in the box. 🙂 3. Henrik loves saving things. He always tells me that you never know when it can come in handy. I try to convince him to move on, clean out and simplify but rarely he listens. 4. Technology is not his strength. I remind him when technology fails that the positives mostly outweigh the negatives. 5. Henrik is an animal lover. He would do anything to save or help an animal. When we’re in the car, he always slams the brake if an animal in in the road or darts in front if the car. 6. He loves candy! Especially Swedish candy. And it’s all or nothing for H. Either he goes full out or totally stays away from it! Quite the addiction. 7. Henrik is a generous man. He always makes sure that he takes care of the people around him. Lots of times he puts others before himself which is something I love about him. 8. He is light sensitive. He always struggles in the sun with no glasses. I have plenty of bad pictures with him squinting from the sun! 9. Henrik never went to college. But he hung out with me during my college years at South Carolina and got to practice with the men’s team at my school before turning pro at the end of 1998. 10. Henrik does not like to waste food in the fridge. Therefore, his leftover lunches can be quite the combo. 🙂 11. Henrik has an amazing memory. Everything from golf shots to golf courses and of course, where I misplaced my stuff – thank goodness. 12. Henrik is great with numbers, so we rarely need a calculator. 13. Henrik values morals very highly. He stands by his word and very rarely changes something that has been planned or promised. 14. He is definitely not the romantic type but his sense of humor definitely makes up for it! 15. Planning ahead and staying organized – whether it’s with golf or projects on the side — is important for Henrik. 16. He suffers from bad grass allergies. And that’s not great when you are a golfer! 17. Henrik never plays with the number 4 on his golf balls. He uses numbers 1, 2 and 3 for the first three days, then he goes back to 1s in the final round. 18. He is left-handed, left-footed and left-eye dominant but Henrik plays golf right-handed.

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Brooks Koepka earned his third victory of the season at the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational. Here’s a look at Koepka’s equipment: Driver: TaylorMade M5 (10.5 degrees) Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ 70TX 3 Wood: TaylorMade M2 Tour (16.5 degrees) Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ 80TX Driving Iron: Nike Vapor Fly Pro (3-iron) Shaft: Fujikura Pro 95 Tour Spec Irons: Mizuno JPX 919 Tour (4-PW) Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 Wedges: Titleist Vokey SM7 (52 and 56 degrees), Titleist Vokey TVD60-L SM4 (60 degrees) Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 Putter: Scotty Cameron T10 Select Newport 2 Golf Ball: Titleist Pro V1x Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord

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It took 377 points to qualify for this year’s FedExCup Playoffs. The top 125 in the standings all have the same destination, the PGA TOUR’s postseason, but they arrived there in myriad ways. Some players did it with consistency. Their presence on the weekend was all but guaranteed as they steadily accrued points on a weekly basis. Others rode a few hot weeks into the top 125 in the FedExCup standings. Some players did the bulk of their work almost a year ago, during the fall portion of the 2017-18 season. Others, like a college student cramming for a physics test, waited until the 11th hour to earn their points. Here’s a closer look at the different ways in which players qualified for the FedExCup Playoffs: MOST POINTS PER START First, let’s look at average points earned per start. It should be no surprise that the top players in the FedExCup standings also top this list. Prize distribution is always top-heavy, and it’s no different with FedExCup points. A win is worth 500 points at most events, while a 10th-place finish is worth 75. Point values drop quickly at the top of the leaderboard. Each stroke is so important when a player is in contention. The top players also tend to compete in fewer events than the players in the middle of the pack. That helps them have a higher average. For reference, a third-place finish in most events is worth 190 points. A fourth-place finish is worth 135. Each player’s FedExCup ranking is listed next to their name. It should be no surprise that Dustin Johnson tops this list. He has finished in the top 3 in seven of his 16 starts this season (three wins, two runners-up and two third-place finishes). He has 10 top-10s and has finished outside the top 25 just three times. Brooks Koepka’s two major wins are worth 600 points apiece, and he’s played just 13 times after sitting out with a wrist injury. His propensity to play well in big events helps, too. THE PLAYERS and World Golf Championships also offer extra points. He finished 11th at THE PLAYERS and had two top-fives in WGCs (T2, HSBC Champions; T5, Bridgestone Invitational). Johnson and Justin Rose are the only players to have top-10s in more than half their starts. Rose has eight top-10s, including two wins, in 14 starts. It’s worth noting that Tiger Woods is the highest-ranked player without a win. Those 500-plus points earned for a win can skew a player’s average earnings. PERCENTAGE EARNED IN ONE START Sometimes it takes just one good finish to crack the top 125, especially if that is a win. Along with the 500 (or more) points that a victory brings, there also is a two-year exemption and a spot in THE PLAYERS Championship, Sentry Tournament of Champions, PGA Champions and possible starts in some World Golf Championships. Five players earned more than half their points in a single start, led by RBC Heritage champion Satoshi Kodaira. His only other top-25 in 16 starts was a T20 at the Fort Worth Invitational. Like Kodaira, Michael Kim and Ted Potter Jr. had just one top-10 this season. It was a win. Sean O’Hair and James Hahn both had a runner-up as their only top-10. Kim has qualified for the Playoffs in three consecutive seasons with just two career top-10s. He didn’t have a top-10 in his rookie season but finished 118th in the FedExCup. He started the 2017 season with a T3 at the Safeway Open. It was his only top-10 of the season. He went on to finish 100th in the standings. This year, his Deere win is his only top-10 of the season. On the opposite end of the spectrum, 30 players qualified for the FedExCup Playoffs while earning less than one-fifth of their points in a single start. Charley Hoffman is the only player to qualify for the Playoffs without a top-10 finish. The others on this list displayed impressive consistency, even if they didn’t contend often. Zach Johnson, for example, finished in the top 25 in 14 of 22 starts but had just two top-10s. Ryan Moore had 10 top-25s in 20 starts, including five top-10s. His highest finish was a T5 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. PERCENTAGE EARNED IN TOP THREE STARTS The conventional wisdom has long stated that a player needed three to four good weeks to keep his TOUR card or, in this case, qualify for the Playoffs. That still seems to hold true for most players. There were eight players, though, who failed to qualify for the Playoffs despite posting multiple top-10s. Sergio Garcia finished 128th in the FedExCup despite having three top-10s, while Martin Piller, Chad Campbell, Tom Lovelady, Ben Silverman, David Hearn, Jim Furyk and Cameron Percy had two apiece. All of Garcia’s top-10s came in consecutive starts (T7, WGC-Mexico; 4th, Valspar; T9, WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play). Those three starts accounted for 81.5 percent of his points this season. Piller has had two top-10s in each of his past two seasons but has missed the Playoffs both times. Sixteen of the players who made the FedExCup Playoffs earned more than three-quarters of their points in their top three finishes. Eighty-seven of the 125 Playoffs qualifiers players earned more than half their points in their top three starts. Here’s a look at the players who earned the highest percentage of their points in their three highest finishes: Bubba Watson, who’s fifth in the FedExCup standings, and Patton Kizzire, who’s 15th, are the highest-ranked players to accumulate the bulk of their points in a trio of events. Watson earned 1,550 for his three wins this season; he earned 329 points in his other 17 starts. His victories accounted for half of his top-25s this season. Five of his six top-25s were top-10s. He also finished T5 at the Masters and T9 at the WGC-Mexico Championship. Kizzire won his first two PGA TOUR titles this season and had a T4 at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. He has not had a top-25 since his 12th-place finish in the WGC-Mexico Championship, though. He earned 87.5% of his FedExCup points by the Sony Open in Hawaii, site of this season’s second victory. Sung Kang’s only top-10s were a pair of third-places, at the CIMB Classic and Quicken Loans National. Those two events alone accounted for 73.5 percent of his FedExCup points. Andrew Landry won the Valero Texas Open, was runner-up to Jon Rahm in a playoff at the CareerBuilder Challenge and had a fourth-place finish at The RSM Classic, which was won by former Arkansas teammate Austin Cook. The Valero and CareerBuilder alone accounted for 71.6 percent of his FedExCup points. PERCENTAGE EARNED IN BACK-TO-BACK STARTS Professional golf can be a frustrating pursuit because your best play often comes in a brief burst. After that short taste of your potential, the rest of the year can feel like a struggle.  Here’s a look at the players who earned the highest percentage of their points in back-to-back starts (Note: I left off players whose lone top-10 was a win off of this list): Twenty-one of the Playoffs qualifiers earned more than half their points in back-to-back starts. It was interesting to find a player like Jon Rahm on this list. He’s known for his consistency, and for good reason. He has 20 top-10s in 51 career TOUR starts. He started 2018 with a solo 2nd at the Sentry Tournament of Champions and win at the CareerBuilder Challenge, a run that lifted him to 2nd in the FedExCup standings. Aaron Wise burst onto the scene in May with his runner-up to Jason Day at Wells Fargo, which preceded his victory at the AT&T Byron Nelson. Those two starts accounted for nearly 70 percent of his points. The Rookie of the Year Candidate also finished T6 at the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational but he has missed more than half his cuts this season. J.B. Holmes finished fourth in his third start of the season, the Farmers Insurance Open, but he struggled in the spring and fell outside the top 125 in the FedExCup. Then he finished third at the FedEx St. Jude and T2 at the Travelers in consecutive June starts to clinch his Playoffs berth. Phil Mickelson also was among the players who earned a bulk of his points in one spectacular stretch. He had four consecutive top-6 finishes in February and March, including his win at the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship and runner-up to Potter at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. He earned 922 points in those four starts. That’s 59.6 percent of his season earnings. In fact, Mickelson earned 74.3 percent of his FedExCup points by March 4, when he won in Mexico. He has just one top-10, at T5 at Wells Fargo, since. PERCENTAGE EARNED IN FALL Alex Cejka appears on the above list because of his runner-up at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open and T9 at the OHL Classic at Mayakoba. Those are his only top-10s of the season. He has just one other top-25 finish. He leads the list of players who earned the highest percentage of their points in the fall portion of the season. Eight players earned more than half their points in the eight events played last fall. PERCENTAGE EARNED AFTER JULY 1 Other players saved their best play for last. Several were players who were outside the top 125 before getting hot in the summer. They withstood the pressure of an approaching deadline and played their way into the postseason with a strong finishing kick. Here are the players who earned the largest percentage of their points after July 1. It should be no surprise that Francesco Molinari and Michael Kim lead this list. Kim won the John Deere, while Molinari had two wins (Quicken Loans National, The Open) and a runner-up to Kim at the Deere in three July starts. He also finished T6 at the PGA Championship, as well. Brandt Snedeker, who missed the second half of last season with a sternum injury, ranked outside the top 125 as late as June. He didn’t have a top-10 until June, then finished with four of them in his final eight starts of the regular season. Three of his top-10s came after July. He finished T3 at A Military Tribute at the Greenbrier and T8 at the RBC Canadian Open before his win at the Wyndham. Molinari, Joel Dahmen, Bronson Burgoon and Sam Ryder all shared second at the John Deere. They were eight shots behind Kim, who won with the TOUR’s best Strokes Gained: Putting performance of the season. Burgoon, Dahmen and Ryder were all outside the top 125 when July began, but they all had multiple top-10s in that month. Dahmen had four top-15s in July. Burgoon earned 67.7 percent of his points in three consecutive July starts, finishing T6-T30-T2 in three consecutive weeks. Dahmen earned 62.1 percent of his points in July. Ryder earned 52.9 percent of his points in back-to-back starts, the T2 at Deere and T7 at Barbasol. He also finished fifth in Houston. Those three starts accounted for 77.8 percent of his points this season. NOTES * Two players — Trey Mullinax and J.T. Poston — qualified for the Playoffs while playing exclusively with the conditional status that comes from finishing between Nos. 126-150 in last year’s FedExCup. Mullinax finished 95th in this season’s standings after finishing 137th last season. A runner-up at the Valero Texas Open, where he shot a third-round 62, accounted for 46 percent of his points. Poston finished 110th in this season’s standings after finishing 132nd last season. Both of his top-10s this season were top-five finishes, accounting for 40 percent of his points. * Richy Werenski and Scott Brown both played 31 times in the regular season, the most among Playoffs participants. Brooks Koepka and Tyrrell Hatton made the fewest starts among Playoffs qualifiers. They played 13 times. * As stated above, Charley Hoffman was the only player to qualify for the Playoffs without a top-10 this season. Nine players quallified with just one top-10.  Daniel Berger’s lone top-10 was a T6 at the U.S. Open, where he played in the final group. C.T. Pan had his two best finishes of the season in his final two starts, finishing T11 at Barracuda and T2 at the Wyndham. Here’s a look at the full list, in order of FedExCup ranking: 60. Ted Potter Jr., 1* 63. C.T. Pan, 1 66. Michael Kim, 1* 77. Satoshi Kodaira, 1* 79. James Hahn, 1 89. Daniel Berger, 1 97. Rory Sabbatini, 1 102. Nick Watney, 1 123. Jhonattan Vegas, 1 * – lone top-10 was a win

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