Wyatt Worthington II living the dream after SHIPPEN win

MEDINAH, Ill. – Neither Gary Woodland nor Jason Day want to settle for being captain’s picks on their respective Presidents Cup teams. “The goal is not to be in that predicament,â€� Woodland said. “I would like to earn my way on,â€� Day added. Yet the reality is this: Unless they can go low in the final round of the BMW Championship, it appears each one will remain on the outside looking in when the eight automatic spots for the U.S. and International teams are confirmed Sunday night. Entering the week, Woodland and Day were each ranked ninth in points. Woodland was about 350 points behind No. 8 Patrick Cantlay in the U.S. standings that are based on a FedExCup points calculation. The Australian Day was less than four points behind Korean C.T. Pan in the International standings that are based on world rankings. Projections through three rounds at Medinah still have each one outside the top eight. Tony Finau, who started the week ranked 10th in the U.S. standings, has leapfrogged Woodland and is projected to fill the opening left by Bryson DeChambeau, who has slid out of the top eight projections. In fact, Woodland is projected to 10th now. Day, tied for 36th through three rounds, needs to finish solo 19th or better to pass fellow Aussie Cameron Smith, who is not in the field this week. An additional factor is No. 10 Jazz Janewattanond of Thailand, who is one stroke off the lead through 54 holes at this week’s Asian Tour event. If Janewattanond wins, he could also gain enough points to move inside the top eight. In the end, though, it likely will not matter for either Woodland or Day if they fail to automatically qualify. Odds are that both will be at Royal Melbourne this December, even if U.S. Captain Tiger Woods and International Captain Ernie Els have to wait a few months before making it official when their picks are announced in early November. Woodland is this year’s U.S. Open champion, and in Presidents Cup history, just a handful of Americans have failed to make the team in the year of their major victory, the last one being in 2011 when Keegan Bradley won the PGA Championship. As for Day, it’s hard to imagine Ernie Els leaving one of Australian’s best players and a former world No. 1 off the International team that is hoping to use its home-course advantage at Royal Melbourne. In fact, both Els and assistant captain Trevor Immelman sent Day good-luck texts this week. Automatic spot or captain’s pick? Day and Woodland both said their focus is more on showing good form than fretting over scenarios. Related: Leaderboard | Projected FedExCup standings | Tiger needs miracle to get to East Lake “I’m not really worried about that as much as I need to go out and play some good golf,â€� said Day, who shot a 3-under 69 Saturday to move to 6 under for the week. “If I can go out and shoot a low one tomorrow, hopefully that will take care of it.â€� Day has missed the cut in two of his last three starts, including last week’s THE NORTHERN TRUST when he dropped from seventh to ninth in the International standings, and followed by announcing his split with caddie Steve Williams after six starts. Since the Masters when he finished T-5, Day has made eight individual stroke-play starts and has just one top 10. But he feels something good is just around the corner. “I feel like I’m very close to shooting a low one,â€� Day said after his round Saturday. “It’s very, very close. It’s right on the border. Just got to be patient with it. I’ve been saying that pretty much the whole year, it feels like. “Sometimes when you’re trying to work and get back to the good form, you have to be patient. That’s all you can do. I’m still trying my best.â€� Woodland, meanwhile, definitely seemed at his best Saturday when he shot a bogey-free 8-under 64, just one shot off the Medinah course record set by Hideki Matsuyama in the second round. Woodland had a 7-foot putt on the 18th hole to tie the record but missed. “Would’ve been nice to knock that in but it wasn’t a bad putt,â€� Woodland said. “Not going to complain about 64.â€� It’s his lowest round since shooting a 63 in the final round of the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open last November. It also eclipsed the 65 he shot in the second round at Pebble Beach in June that set him for his weekend run to the U.S. Open title. Since then, Woodland has made four starts, missing two cuts. Wife Gabby also delivered their twin girls earlier this month, and Woodland said Saturday that it was tough emotionally. But he seemed to find his groove in the second round at Liberty National, making the cut by shooting 4 under in his final nine holes that Friday. “Playing four rounds last week was huge for me,â€� said Woodland, 9 under through three rounds. “I’m getting some things worked out on the golf course. It’s a little hard to do it on the range.â€� But he did find something on the Medinah range Friday night, successfully carrying that to the course Saturday. He hit 10 of 14 fairways and 16 of 18 greens. “It’s as good as I’ve hit it in a long time,â€� he said. No doubt that’s good news for Captain Woods. It’ll make it easier to add Woodland to the team no matter what happens Sunday. “The way I played today,â€� Woodland said, “if I continue to do that, everything should be all right.â€�

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JERSEY CITY, N.J. – Notes and observations from the third day at the Presidents Cup, where the International Team is on the brink of a heavy defeat. The U.S. Team dominated morning Foursomes 3.5-0.5, then were almost as impressive in afternoon Four-ball matches to the tune of 3-1. They are just a point away (14.5-3.5) from clinching the Cup in Sunday singles. For more from Liberty National, click here for the Daily Wrap-up.  PLAYING FOR PRIDE AND PRICE The odds of the International Team winning all 12 singles matches on Sunday to win the Presidents Cup are around 15,000/1. As such, Sunday becomes mostly about pride and about the future. It also is about the past. With Captain Nick Price likely finishing up his term having now overseen three Cups, the focus is on where to from here. “We may be down, but we are not out,â€� Price said “We’ve given it our best shot this week. We’ve just come up against a juggernaut of an American Team that has not put a foot wrong, it seems like, in three days. They have had all the momentum and we’ve had nothing. “There’s an outside shot tomorrow, and the guys all know that. They are going to go play for their pride, they are going to play for themselves, they are going to play for the team and they are going to play for us (captains). “They are going to do their best. You’re not going to be able to take the spirit away out from our team, that’s for sure.â€� Anirban Lahiri, who with Si Woo Kim provided the only International Team win on Saturday, said the side would play with freedom and a determination to send Price out on a better note. Price has been the most popular International leader in some time and the score line has cut the Zimbabwean deep. “We can compete. We haven’t this week but going into tomorrow, I think we have to enjoy ourselves a little more,â€� Lahiri said. “It’s difficult to do that when you’re down the way we’ve been but I think all of us are going to go out there and try and play our best. We’ve got a mountain in front of us, but nothing to lose. “All 12 of us, caddies, and everybody, we feel terrible about this being Nick’s last captaincy, and we’ve not played well. This is not the way we’d like him to leave. We want him to go out on a happy note. So we are going to give him our all and we are going to play for our pride and for him.â€� LAHIRI REDEMPTION KEEPS SLIMMEST OF HOPES ALIVE Two years ago Anirban Lahiri had a 4-foot putt to give the International Team at least a share of the Presidents Cup. It missed. And they eventually lost the Cup by a point. Since that moment the Indian star had wanted a chance for redemption and while his impressive efforts on Saturday didn’t clinch the Cup, they did stop a dominant U.S. Team from doing so. Si Woo Kim and Lahiri sat all square with Charley Hoffman and Kevin Chappell through 15 holes before Lahiri buried a 16-foot birdie putt, pointing it into the hole as it dropped, to go 1 up. But the drama was far from over. On 17 Hoffman’s approach came up short of the green while Lahiri sat 19-feet from the hole. Hoffman chipped in and celebrated like he’d won the Cup, chest bumping Chappell and running around in euphoria. Once the deafening noise subsided Lahiri lined up his putt – and drained it – ensuring Sunday’s singles would not be dead rubbers. “I think the Americans have done it all week. They seem to make the turn, just around the clubhouse, which is the 14th, and they make birdies down the stretch. They make putts; they hole shots,â€� Lahiri said. “I was sitting in the morning when I came in, and I said one of us or some of us have got to try and do the same. We have to try and make those putts and make those birdies coming home. I guess that was just a good seed in my head when I started out today.â€� On 18 he was left with a 3-foot par putt to secure the 1-up win but as he lined it up Chappell conceded it in a display of good sportsmanship. The International Team had been privately upset at some of the American antics, including Phil Mickelson and Kevin Kisner’s three amigos dance on Friday. “There has not been as much sportsmanship as there should be up until those last two holes,â€� Lahiri added. “So I think that should kind of demonstrate to everyone here how we really should play the game, with the right kind of spirit.â€� ODDS AND ENDS Since 2015 Jason Day has won eight PGA TOUR events including a major and a WGC – Dell Match Play Championship. Unfortunately, his past two Presidents Cups in that time frame have not been as prolific. Day is now 0-7-2 in the last two Cups combined. He plays Charley Hoffman in singles on Sunday as he tries to get an elusive win. The 11-point lead by the U.S. Team heading into Sunday’s Singles Matches surpasses the previous record of nine points; the International Team led by nine points in 1998 and ended up beating the U.S. Team 20.5 to 11.5. The largest overall margin of victory in Presidents Cup history after all sessions is 11 points, when the U.S. defeated the International Team 21.5 to 10.5 in 2000. CALL OF THE DAY SHOT OF THE DAY BEST OF SOCIAL MEDIA

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