With his FedEx Cup win, the PGA Tour caps off the Summer of Rory McIlroy

LAKE FOREST, Ill. — Given another opportunity to win, Marc Leishman didn’t give anyone much of a chance in the BMW Championship. Staked to a five-shot lead, Leishman made back-to-back birdies late in the final round Sunday to put away the final challenge, then closed with a birdie for a four-under 67 to set the tournament record and win by five over Justin Rose and Rickie Fowler. It was Leishman’s second victory this year, and it sends him to East Lake as the No. 4 seed in the FedEx Cup, giving him a clear shot at the $10 million prize. Leishman finished at 23-under 261, breaking the 72-hole tournament record that Tiger Woods set at Cog Hill in 2007. The timing could not have been better for the 33-year-old Australian. In his last event two weeks ago, he lost a two-shot lead on the back nine at the TPC Boston and said that loss stung more than most. “I had a few scars from a few weeks ago,” Leishman said. “I was just really, really determined to not let that happen again. Got it done.” And it was never really close. Rose is the only player who got within two shots of the lead, only for Leishman to answer with a 30-foot birdie putt on the 15th hole and a 10-footer for birdie on the 16th. Rose closed with a 65. Fowler made a late run when he was too far back, and he needed one more birdie on the 18th to grab the No. 5 seed for the FedExCup finale next week at the TOUR Championship. He ripped driver off the fairway and over the stream to the back rough. It was a bold play that preceded a pair of meager efforts — a chip that came up 25 feet short, and a birdie putt that didn’t to the hole. He closed with a 67. Jon Rahm birdied four of his last five holes for a 67 and will be the No. 5 seed. Jordan Spieth shot 65 to tie for seventh and kept the No. 1 seed, followed by Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Leishman and Rahm. The points are reset to give all 30 players at East Lake a mathematical chance, but the top five seeds only have to win the TOUR Championship to capture the FedExCup. As usual, the only drama at Conway Farms was who made it to East Lake, and a pair of PGA TOUR rookies delivered. Xander Schauffele, who won The Greenbrier Classic in July, opened with 10 pars and two bogeys and was not even in the picture until the San Diego native played his final six holes in six-under par, including a 30-foot eagle when he drove the green on the par-4 15th. Patrick Cantlay fell out of the top 30 when he took bogey on the 16th hole. Needing a birdie to get into the TOUR Championship, he hit a hybrid onto the green to 50 feet, left his eagle attempt some 10 feet short and calmly holed the putt to get in. Cantlay returned to golf after a three-year break from a back injury that nearly ended his career, and the death of his close friend and caddie, Chris Roth, who was hit by car as they walked to dinner. The former UCLA star made it to the TOUR Championship despite playing only 11 events this year. Being in the top 30 gets him into the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open next year. Masters champion Sergio Garcia injected more drama than necessary. He figured he needed a par on the final hole to get into the top 30 when a bogey would have worked. His second shot was on the rocks in the stream, and after taking close to 30 minutes on a drop, he smacked it over the green into the grandstand, got more relief, and then got up-and-down for his par. Phil Mickelson wasn’t so fortunate. He made three bogeys on the front nine and tried to get back in the game with an eagle on the reachable par-4 15th. Needing an eagle on the 18th hole to make it to East Lake, Mickelson’s 140-foot pitch-and-run hit the hole and popped out. After the 30-minute wait on Garcia. Leishman earlier this year won the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill. The third victory of his tour career was by far the biggest, and went far beyond the strong field, the $1,575,000 paycheck or his standing in the FedExCup. Leishman pegged this event as a chance to spread awareness for sepsis and toxic shock syndrome, which nearly killed his wife two years ago. He asked the players to wear ribbons on their caps this week to celebration Sepsis Awareness Month. And then he went wire-to-wire, walking off the 18th green to see his wife, Audrey, and their three young children.

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The 43rd Ryder Cup seemed to be securely in the grasp of the U.S. team as the Sunday Singles session began less than two weeks ago at Whistling Straits. The U.S. led by six points, 11-5, and in the storied history of the matches, no team ever had closed a gap that wide. But hey, it’s the Ryder Cup, and crazy things can happen. Twelve points were at stake. You never know. There was one match of the 12 that stirred particular interest among the U.S. Team early on. Ryder Cup rookie Scottie Scheffler had drawn Europe’s standout player, World No. 1 Jon Rahm, in the third match of the day. Scheffler promptly birdied his first four holes, gave away a hole at the fifth, then made another birdie at 6. Scheffler was 3 up, and he never let up, eventually closing out Rahm on the 15th green, a resounding 4-and-3 victor. How Scheffler, ranked 22nd in the world, would view his performance speaks as much about this 25-year-old’s inner confidence as did his emphatic victory. Did taking down the World No. 1 on one of golf’s biggest stages elevate him as a player? He pretty much shrugs at such a notion. “I’ve always perceived that if I was put into a position at a Ryder Cup or a major championship that I would perform well,” said Scheffler, the confident Texan who tees it up Thursday at the Shriners Children’s Open. “I’ve always kind of had that faith and confidence in myself as a player. So it may have changed y’all’s perception of me, but for me, it doesn’t change too much.” Scheffler is coming off a solid sophomore season on the PGA TOUR. He played in 29 events, advancing to the TOUR Championship for the second consecutive season. He finished in the top 10 in three majors. He was a runner-up to Billy Horschel at the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play in Austin (where he once again defeated Rahm) and finished third at The Memorial. Steve Stricker added Scheffler as a captain’s pick on the U.S. Ryder Cup team, and Scheffler paid off that decision with a record of 2-0-1. He went 1-0-1 alongside Bryson DeChambeau in a pair of Four-ball matches before topping Rahm in singles. Now that he has ticked off one bucket-list item, he looks ahead to his next: Becoming a winner on the PGA TOUR. “I don’t feel a huge rush that I have to win a golf tournament out here,” Scheffler said Wednesday from TPC Summerlin. (He posted eight top-10 finishes a year ago.) “I feel like I’m going to play out here for a long period of time, and I enjoy the way my life is now for me. I just want to continue to put myself in position to win tournaments.” Randy Smith, the highly respected instructor from Royal Oaks Country Club in Dallas, where he has taught for 41 years, knew there was something different and distinct about Scheffler the first time he ever watched him swing a golf club. Mind you, through the years, Smith, instructor to Open champion Justin Leonard among many other TOUR pros, has received a tap on the shoulder many times to come and view golf’s next big thing. Scheffler, who was moving to Texas from New Jersey, was only 6 or 7 at the time. “Little Scottie was tiny,” Smith said, recalling their first visit on the practice tee at Royal Oaks. “He could walk under a card table. He started to hit some balls. All I saw was right to left, up in the air, very low, left to right … out of a 6 1/2-, 7 year-old kid? He had total awareness of where his clubface was. I said, ‘Hmmm. This is a special talent.’” Smith was walking along inside the ropes at Whistling Straits as Scheffler kept pouring birdies on top of Rahm, and he noticed an innate calmness and comfort level about him, despite the huge stage. A multi-sport athlete in his youth, Scheffler thrives on the energy of a big crowd. Smith laughs and said this was Scheffler’s time to show off a little. He did. Surely winning a TOUR event is something bound to follow relatively soon. “The thing about it is, he has not been at this very long,” Smith said. “He has accomplished a lot of things, and he’s been one, two, three shots away from winning several big events. A little more marination, a little more dealing with things …. his Ryder Cup performance can do nothing but help his patience level on the golf course. “That was the best I’ve ever seen him physically swing the golf club, up in Kohler. He was balanced, he was calm in his approach, he was calm swinging the golf club. Everything technically was so good, and I think that was powered by the brain being so good.” Brooks Koepka was one of Scheffler’s teammates at Whistling Straits, where the U.S. romped to a record 19-9 triumph, and took extra measure of what Scheffler did in the third slot on Sunday. He and Scheffler share the same agent (Blake Smith, Randy’s son) and Koepka has been witnessing Scheffler’s talent for years. Koepka said his first Ryder Cup appearance in 2016 did great things for his confidence, and expects Scheffler to ride a wave of momentum after such a big week in Wisconsin. “He hasn’t won yet, but he will, and it’s going to be very quickly,” Koepka said. “… I felt like I had the most confidence after 2016 (at Hazeltine). It really kind of propelled me. I wouldn’t be surprised if that happens to him. “If you look at all these big events, the majors, the WGCs over the last few years, that’s where he plays his best, it seems, the bigger tournaments. He’s a big-game hunter. I wouldn’t be surprised if he pops off a major win very shortly. That win will come.” Scheffler concurs that the bigger the stage, the better he performs. He is working on trying to be more focused at “regular” TOUR events on Thursdays and Fridays, positioning himself better for the weekends. Smith notes that Scheffler has a great awareness when it comes to scoring. He has that extra tangible gift of knowing how to grind out a 68 on a day when his ballstriking or putting might send others to a 70. One shot means something. “As far as not winning on TOUR,” Scheffler said, “I think if I wanted to do something to where I could win a random event out here, I would go play a weaker schedule than I do. For me, I like playing tournaments against the best players in the world, and that’s what the PGA TOUR is all about. I’m just going to keep trying to put myself in a position to win tournaments.” Stay patient, follow the plan, and the wins will arrive. Throughout his path, starting with a U.S. Junior Amateur, they always have. There could be some big ones in store. After taking on the World No. 1 on a huge stage, Scheffler is idling along nicely, and seems in no great rush to get to where is trying to go.

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Capital One’s The Match: Champions for Charity takes place on Sunday, May 24 from Medalist Golf Club. It will feature Tiger Woods and former NFL QB Peyton Manning vs. Phil Mickelson and current NFL QB Tom Brady. The event will benefit COVID-19 relief efforts. HOW TO FOLLOW � Sunday, May 24. Live coverage begins at 2 p.m. ET � Television Broadcast: TNT, TBS, truTV and HLN � Format: Four-Ball (Best Ball) format on the front nine and a Modified Alternate Shot format on the back nine, where each participant will tee off and then the team will play alternate shot from the selected drive. The unique combination of formats is aimed to provide an entertaining mix of strategy, team collaboration and consequence to nearly every shot. As part of the competitive play, there will also be a set of on-course challenges to raise additional charitable funds.

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