Winner’s Bag: Golf clubs played by Marc Leishman at the CIMB Classic

2023 Sanderson Farms Championship, Round 1 Scoring Conditions: Overall: +0.03 strokes per round Morning wave: +0.42 Afternoon wave: -0.36 Current cutline (top 65 and ties): 67 players at -1 or better (T43) Top 3 projected cutline probabilities: 1. 2 under par: 39.0% 2. 1 under par: 35.3% 3. 3 under par: 13.0% Top 10 win probabilities: 1. Davis Riley (T1, -6, 11.5%) 2. Will Gordon (T1, -6, 7.8%) 3. Thomas Detry (T3, -5, 6.8%) 4. Christiaan Bezuidenhout (T3, -5, 5.7%) 5. Sam Burns (T25, -2, 4.7%) 6. Mark Hubbard (T3, -5, 3.6%) 7. Andrew Putnam (T3, -5, 3.4%) 8. Scott Stallings (T14, -3, 3.3%) 9. Luke List (T14, -3, 3.0%) 10. Brandon Matthews (T3, -5, 2.9%) NOTE: These reports are based off of the live predictive model run by @DataGolf. The model provides live “Make Cut”, “Top 20”, “Top 5”, and “Win” probabilities every 5 minutes from the opening tee shot to the final putt of every PGA TOUR event. Briefly, the model takes account of the current form of each golfer as well as the difficulty of their remaining holes, and probabilities are calculated from 20K simulations. To follow live finish probabilities throughout the remainder of the Sanderson Farms Championship, or to see how each golfer’s probabilities have evolved from the start of the event to the current time, click here for the model’s home page.

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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Another roar shook the grounds as the beer rained down in celebration. RELATED: Leaderboard | Inside Sam Ryder’s epic ace on WM Phoenix Open’s 16th hole | The top 5 aces at TPC Scottsdale’s 16th Not 24 hours after the week’s first ace at TPC Scottsdale’s wild 16th hole, Carlos Ortiz made another hole-in-one at the raucous par-3 party stop at the WM Phoenix Open on Sunday. Ortiz hit 9-iron and watched the ball land short and roll into the hole from 179 yards, the crowd detonating as it disappeared. He high-fived playing partners Kevin Kisner and Joseph Bramlett and their caddies as chaos ensued for the second straight day. Sam Ryder aced the same hole Saturday, but from just 124 yards. This marks just the second time there have been two aces on 16 in the same week; Tiger Woods (third round) and Steve Stricker (final round) each made a hole-in-one at the iconic hole in 1997. Although it was reported that someone bet $10,000 on Ortiz to win, at 150-to-1 odds, before the tournament, he was well off the pace when he made a hole-in-one on his seventh hole of the day after starting on the back nine. (The leaders were still on the second hole.) Be that as it may, Ortiz further helped his cause when he drove the short, par-4 17th hole and made the eagle putt from 12 feet, 9 inches. It marked the first time a player has made back-to-back eagles on the PGA TOUR this season, and the second time in as many seasons that Ortiz has. He went back-to-back at the Sony Open in Hawaii last year. Ortiz’s ace on 16 was the 11th all-time at the wild-and-crazy par 3.

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Rory McIlroy produced his best finish in the three tournaments since the PGA TOUR’s restart, but a tie for 12th on Sunday was hardly the confidence-booster the reigning FedExCup champ and world No. 1 was looking for at the Travelers Championship. In fact, he left TPC River Highlands frustrated and needing a break. As a result, he will definitely take next week off in Detroit at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, and may not return to action until the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide, the second of two consecutive TOUR events at Muirfield Village. “The way I’m feeling right now,” McIlroy said, “I feel like a couple weeks off … just reset and start again.” McIlroy, you may recall, did not finish outside the top five in his first six starts prior to the suspension of play in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That included a win at the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions. But since the restart, he finished T-32 at the Charles Schwab Challenge in his first appearance at Colonial, then T-41 at the RBC Heritage in just his second career start at Harbour Town (and his first in 11 years). McIlroy was playing the Travelers for the third time in the last four years, having finished inside the top 20 in his previous two times. He has another top-20 this week, but the lasting feeling for McIlroy is frustration. “Decision-making was terrible the last few days,” McIlroy said. “Just some stupid shots and trying to take too much on at times. I think probably playing a little bit and just being a little more thoughtful on the course. Yeah, it’s just sort of dumb mistakes in there that I don’t usually make.” McIlroy’s final-round 67 on Sunday was a rollercoaster ride that consisted of three birdies on the front nine sandwiched around two bogeys, while his back nine included an eagle at the par-5 13th and a double-bogey at the par-4 17th. It was the kind of up-and-down inconsistency he had avoided prior to the break. “There’s been some really good stuff in there, but then just some really stupid mistakes,” McIlroy said. “Even today, like I got off to a good start and then bogeyed some easy holes. It’s a little too up and down, a little bit roller coaster-ish, where it didn’t really feel like that before we stopped. It was sort of quite consistent and sort of building sort of rounds very nicely, a lot of pars, a few birdies, not many mistakes. “Just over the last few weeks I’ve made too many mistakes, too many bogeys, too many loose shots, and that was sort of what it was this week as well.” McIlroy was in good shape going into the weekend, tied for fourth after rounds of 63 and 63. But he dropped out of contention after a rollercoaster – that word again – 69 on Saturday that included bogeys on two of his last four holes. He said he’s physically fine but mentally he’s trying to get back into form. “Just getting back into that tournament routine, tournament mode, and that’s why I sort of wanted a couple weeks off more than anything else. It’s just the mental aspect of it, and especially when you are frustrated,” he said. “I’ve been frustrated on the course the last three weeks, not being sort of in contention, and sort of sucks going off in the middle of the pack on a Sunday, knowing that you don’t really have a chance.”

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