Winner’s Bag: Henrik Stenson, Hero World Challenge

Cameron Smith ... Sure, it feels like cheating to circle the 51st-ranked golfer in the world who advanced to the TOUR Championship in early September and has opened 2020-21 by going 3-for-3 with top 25s in his last two starts, but the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP @ SHERWOOD is limited to 78 golfers, so his position as a Sleeper is more relative than usual and he deserves the attention. If you agreed to split hairs, consider that the Aussie hasn't recorded a top 10 since hoisting the hardware at the Sony Open in Hawaii nine months ago. Joel Dahmen ... With 100 PGA TOUR starts under his belt, he's among the throng that appreciate the mountain that Jason Kokrak finally conquered at THE CJ CUP @ SHADOW CREEK on Sunday. It's rare for a first-time winner to emerge in a limited-field invitational with no cut. The last was Russell Knox at the 2015 World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions the week after Justin Thomas broke through at the now-defunct CIMB Classic. Dahmen's impressive form over time supports his inclusion on the short list of the non-winners in our crosshairs week over week. Ryo Ishikawa ... Time passes more quickly for some than for others. Even if you've been a fan of the PGA TOUR for a minute, it still might surprise you that he hasn't possess status since the 2016-17 season, the last of five consecutive with a card. It also might come as a shock that he's 29 years old and a veteran of 151 starts. Nevertheless, the once can't-miss prospect from Japan arrives having just finished T3 at the Japan Open Golf Championship with a field-low 65 in the final round. His astounding 17 victories on his home circuit include three in 2019. Takumi Kanaya ... It's not often when a PGA TOUR non-member wedges his way into this select grouping twice in six tournaments, but he's not just any PGA TOUR non-member. While he missed the cut at the U.S. Open, it's merely a matter of time before he's a fixture on the world stage. Already 218th in the Official World Golf Ranking thanks in part to a solo seventh in his professional debut at the Japan Open Golf Championship on Sunday, the 22-year-old also is a winner on the Japan Golf Tour. That title helped propel him to the top spot in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. Gunn Charoenkul ... If you read my Father's Day special about how becoming a father influences performance inside the ropes, then his progression to the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP @ SHERWOOD makes sense. He learned that his wife, Koyy, was pregnant in mid-2019. She delivered the couple's first child in February of this year. In the interim and since the birth, the first-time father converted 18 top-15 finishes worldwide, including in all of his most recent eight starts. The most recent was a co-runner-up in his native Thailand two months ago. NOTE: Sleeper is a relative term, so Rob uses unofficial criteria to determine who qualifies. Each of the following usually is determined to be ineligible for this weekly staple: Winners of the tournament on the current host course; winners in the same season; recent major champions; top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking; recent participants of team competitions.

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Las Vegas already is famous as a spot where success and failure is measured and felt in an instant, but the pace at which it’s experienced isn’t limited to the indoors of casinos. RELATED: Play Pick ‘Em Live | The First Look America’s Playground also boasts the Las Vegas Motor Speedway just outside the sprawl northeast of town, but even there the fastest vehicles seen may not be on the 1.5-mile track when the fighter jets are practicing at nearby Nellis Air Force Base. And there’s yet another racetrack in town, metaphorically speaking, of course. It’s TPC Summerlin, host of this week’s Shriners Children’s Open. As the easiest par 71 on the PGA TOUR, each of the 144 entrants should expect to hit the ground, uh, running. Whoever crosses the finish line better than the rest will be the 40th champion in tournament history. POWER RANKINGS: SHRINERS CHILDREN’S OPEN J.T. Poston, Si Woo Kim, Cam Davis, Alex Noren and Justin Suh will be among the notables reviewed in Draws and Fades. It’s not a surprise that Sungjae Im doesn’t win every time he plays, but it might have been a surprise if he went his entire career without winning at TPC Summerlin, as he did a year ago. Known largely as one of the busiest among the best, Im also has been among the most frequent in signing lots of scorecards with lots of red numbers. So, while a contemporary or seven can stride into this week’s host course with confidence that it will reward the kind of practice that should yield low scores, Im is the kind of guy who has been there and done that time and again. Relatively speaking, he already was a target before his title. Still, a pair of 2-under 69s resulted in a trunk slam last year – or, given where we are in our history, a slowly lowered liftgate after a button on the fob has been depressed – but that’s not uncommon when the weather cooperates, which it will again this week. The retractable roof is closed. Sunshine will dominate the scene with daytime highs flirting with and touching 90 degrees. What wind flaps the flags will be a non-factor. It’s a simple formula and one with which the recent graduates of the Korn Ferry Tour are familiar: Pile up the scoring opportunities and pour in the putts. If any isn’t targeting 20-under at the conclusion of four rounds, he’s doing it wrong. Last year’s field average in similar conditions was 68.926 (or 2.074 strokes under par) and that was a three-year high. In addition to scoring, Im led in greens in regulation (62) and scrambling. That combination usually is unbeatable provided chances are converted, but he did that, too, ranking fifth in putting: birdies-or-better. He also paced in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green and par-4 scoring, but he did everything well all week. Everyone who has pegged it on the 7,255-yard layout before likely will notice that all fairways and greens have been replaced with new grass. It’s a significant change/improvement since last year’s edition, but the turf was exposed to a hot summer in 2022, and recovery efforts are ongoing. As a result, the bentgrass greens are not expected to roll further than 11 feet on the Stimpmeter. (The customary maximum is 11½ feet.) However, the thickest of primary bermuda rough continues to be mowed at 2½ inches. ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE PGATOUR.com’s Rob Bolton recaps and previews every tournament from numerous perspectives. Look for his following contributions as scheduled. MONDAY: Power Rankings TUESDAY*: Sleepers, Draws & Fades WEDNESDAY: Pick ’Em Preview SUNDAY: Medical Extensions, Qualifiers, Reshuffle * – Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, which also publishes on Tuesday.

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ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. - Brendon Todd made six birdies on the front nine to seize control and shot 8-under 62 on Saturday at Sea Island to take a two-shot lead into the final round of The RSM Classic as he goes for his third-straight PGA TOUR victory.  Related: Leaderboard | Tee times | Plantation Course gets new look Todd, who overcame a case of the full-swing yips that nearly drove him from the game, is coming off victories in the inaugural Bermuda Championship and the Mayakoba Golf Classic. He was at 18-under 194, two shots ahead of Webb Simpson (63) and Sebastián Muñoz (66). Tyler Duncan, who started with a two-shot lead, made 18 pars for a 70 and fell four shots behind. Todd is trying to become the first player since Dustin Johnson in 2017 to win three consecutive starts.

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