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By Ryan Herrington
There was no fist pump. No wry smile. Not even a sigh of relief. Patrick Cantlay had just rolled in a 10-foot, nine-inch birdie putt on the 18th hole at Conway Farms that would change not just his plans for next week, but for his PGA Tour schedule in 2018. Yet all the emotion the 25-year-old rookie showed was a slight wave to the crowd and a handshake with his caddie. See for yourself.

Eleven months of work down to one putt.

Patrick Cantlay may have just punched his ticket to East Lake. #QuickHits pic.twitter.com/RkIzLoZuwv

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) September 17, 2017

Let us, then, get excited for what Cantlay accomplished as he closed out a final-round 70 at the BMW Championship and tied for ninth. More importantly, the finish allowed him to move from 41st to 29th on the FedEx Cup points list, clinching a spot in next week’s Tour Championship despite having played only 12 tour events in the 2016-’17 season. That, in turn, earned Cantlay automatic invitations into all four of next season’s major championships.

In his defense, Cantlay said he wasn’t entirely positive if the putt on the last green would be enough. “I figured a birdie would be close. I knew I was out,” Cantlay said. “I didn’t know it would for sure get me in or anything but I knew it was really close and I definitely needed it.”

Cantlay wasn’t alone in turning the week into a springboard for 2018. Also sneaking inside the top 30 at Conway Farms was Tony Finau, whose T-7 finish moved him from 39th to 24th; Xander Schauffele, who went from 32nd to 26th with a T-20 showing; and Sergio Garcia, who didn’t have to worry about playing in 2018’s majors thanks to his Masters win in April, but used a T-12 performance to move from 34th to 25th.

Finau’s move inside the top 30 was even more impressive than Cantlay’s. Finau shot a closing 64 with a chip-in for birdie on the 18th from 17 feet, 10 inches.

Tony Finau is ? FIRED UP ?

Right now, he's played his way IN to the @playofffinale. #QuickHits pic.twitter.com/kp2Nr0VQrC

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) September 17, 2017

Yeah, Finau gives his caddie a powerful high five, but that’s about all the emotion he shows too. What’s going on with these guys?

During the final round, Finau took just 20 putts (including only three on the final four holes) and made 119 feet, two inches of putts. Finau was 17-for-18 on putts inside 25 feet on Sunday.

“I was able to just somehow get it in the hole when I needed to,” said the 28-year-old who the previous two seasons had advanced to the BMW Championship only to fail to get inside the top 30 and play in the Tour Championship. “Yeah, it’s such a gratifying feeling right now.”

The post Clutch 18th-hole birdies allow Patrick Cantlay and Tony Finau to sneak inside the FedEx Cup top 30, earn spot in Tour Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By E. Michael Johnson
After the third round of the BMW Championship, Marc Leishman noted, “I’m hitting some really good iron shots which is important, give myself a lot of opportunities.”

Over the 72 holes at Conway Farms G. C. Leishman indeed gave himself a lot of opportunities and converted 28 of them into birdies—enough to result in a wire-to-wire five-stroke win. The victory came after Leishman entered the final round in his last event, the Dell Technologies Championship, tied for the lead with Justin Thomas before finishing third, four shots back.

Leishman uses Callaway’s Apex Pro 16 irons as well as the company’s Apex UT 3-utility iron. Leishman also is in the minority on tour as he utilizes just two wedges in addition to this pitching wedge—a Callaway Mack Daddy Forged 54-degree and a 58-degree Titleist Vokey SM6. The Aussie used that combination (also employed during his win at this year’s Arnold Palmer Invitational) to hit 72.2 percent of his greens for the week, including 13 of 18 (which equates to same 72.2 percentage) Sunday. Perhaps the most timely was an approach on the par-4 16th from 123 yards with his 54-degree wedge to 9 feet, 6 inches that he converted for a second-consecutive birdie that pushed his cushion to three shots.

Not to be overlooked was Leishman’s work off the tee as well, as he averaged 311.5 yards while hitting 67.9 percent of his fairways with his Callaway Great Big Bertha Epic driver. Leishman’s driver has a Fujikura Speeder Evolution II 757x shaft that is cut to just under 45 inches (44 15/16 inches) that is tipped one inch and the movable weight is set in the draw-bias position. Like with most golfers, performance is his primary criteria when choosing a driver, but another element also is critical. “Number 2 (for me) is the sound,” Leishman told Callaway. “I want it to sound solid.”

What’s in Marc Leishman’s bag:

Ball: Callaway Chrome Soft X

Driver: Callaway Great Big Bertha Epic (Fujikura Speeder Evolution II 757x), 9 degrees

3-wood: Callaway Great Big Bertha Epic, 15 degrees

7-wood: Callaway Steelhead XR, 21 degrees

Irons (3): Callaway Apex UT; (4-PW): Callaway Apex Pro 16

Wedges: Callaway Mack Daddy Forged (54 degrees); Titleist Vokey SM6 (58 degrees)

Putter: Odyssey Versa #1 Wide Black

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By Christopher Powers
Over the first two days at the BMW Championship, Jason Day’s return to his old self was the story. Meanwhile, Marc Leishman was playing better than anyone in the field, posting rounds of 62 and 64 to take the solo lead. That didn’t change in the third round Saturday, with the six-foot-two Australian carding a three-under 68 to open up a five-shot lead at 19-under 194.

Leishman, 33, mentioned after his round on Friday that he always feels a bit under-the-radar in the states. In terms of name recognition, he has a point, but his game is up there with the top players in the world. His resume speaks for itself, with two PGA Tour victories, one European Tour victory and four top-six finishes in majors, including his 2015 Open Championship playoff loss to Zach Johnson.

A victory on Sunday at Conway Farms would be further proof Leishman should be recognized as one of the top players in golf. This week, he ranks first in the field in birdies with 23, and first in total strokes gained. If he can convert on the first outright 54-hole lead of his career, it’ll be his third victory on the PGA Tour, and second this season.

Jason Day and Rickie Fowler, meanwhile, shot matching one-under 70s and are tied for second at 14-under 199. Day wasn’t able to get much going, making just two birdies and a bogey. Fowler’s round featured an eagle on his opening hole, but not much after that, with just one birdie and two bogeys.

Seven back in solo fourth at 12-under 201 is England’s Justin Rose, who posted his low round of the week, a bogey-free five-under 66. Rose had been struggling since his Masters runner-up finish, missing three of his next six cuts and finishing no higher than T-54 on the PGA Tour. But the playoffs have rejuvenated the 2013 U.S. Open champ, who now has a chance to finish inside the top 10 for a third straight time with a good finish on Sunday.

Jon Rahm is among a group of seven players tied for fifth at 11-under 202. The Spaniard carded the round of the day along with four others, a six-under 65 that featured seven birdies and a bogey. The low round saw him vault 24 spots up the leader board, but he’s projected to remain at fifth in the standings. Much like Rose, Rahm has found some form in the playoffs, finishing T-3 at the Northern Trust and T-4 at the Dell Technologies Championship.

Three players are at 10-under 203, including Stewart Cink, who shot a one-under 70. The 44-year-old entered the week at 57th in the standings, and still has work left to crack the top 30 and earn a spot at the Tour Championship. He’s projected at 46th and looking to make it to the final leg of the playoffs for the first time since 2009.

Phil Mickelson, projected at 33rd, and Sergio Garcia, projected at 27th, are tied for 15th at nine-under 204.

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After a week off, the march to the Tour Championship begins again at the BMW Championship, where the process of cutting the original 125 golfers down to the final 30 endures its biggest slice.

Seventy players will tee it up at Conway Farms outside of Chicago this week, each playing with different goals in mind in this no-cut tournament. Forty are simply trying to find a way to keep this from being their final 72 holes of the 2016-’17 season. Among those are several marquee players, including the defending FedEx Cup champion, Rory McIlroy.

Others have more than survival in mind but rather are jockeying for position to claim this year’s Cup or to lock up other end-of-the-year honors. Get inside the top 30, and you earn a spot into all four majors in 2018. (How’s that for incentive?) Get inside the top five, and you control your own destiny next week at East Lake and the Tour Championship in your quest to win the FedEx Cup title and tis accompanying $10 million bonus.

To these ends, we’ve identified the seven tour pros, listed alphabetically, who are playing with the most on the line at this week’s event, identifying their motivations and what’s at stake when play resumes on Thursday.

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Wesley Bryan
FedEx Cup points list ranking: 37

Sam Greenwood

Bryan’s year was made when he won the RBC Heritage in April, but it would become extra special if he could also claim Rookie of the Year honors. None of the 29 rookies on tour are inside the top 30 on the FedEx Cup rankings, with Mackenzie Hughes (31) and Xander Schauffele (32) both slightly ahead of Bryan. But while all three have a victory to their credit, the former trick-shot artist has the most top-10 finishes (five). If he could pull ahead of his rookie rivals and sneak into a start at East Lake, the award is as good as his.

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Jason Day
FedEx Cup points list ranking: 28

Sam Greenwood/Getty Images

Day is in the midst of salvaging his 2017 season with a T-9 finish at the PGA Championship and a T-6 at The Northern Trust, pushing him inside the top 30 on the FedEx Cup points list for the first time all year. A T-25 showing at the Dell Technologies Championship moved him up to 28th. If Day can make the cut at Conway Farms, he’ll have wrapped up a spot in the Tour Championship for the seventh time in eight years.

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Rickie Fowler
FedEx Cup points list ranking: 6

Warren Little/Getty Images

Of course, Fowler has nothing to worry about when it comes to qualifying for the Tour Championship. However, he is one of the ones trying to elbow his way into the top five of the points list after BMW so that he can control his own fate when he gets to East Lake. While Fowler went another summer without claiming his first major victory (and close pals Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas each grabbed one), the FedEx Cup title would be a reasonable substitute.

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Sergio Garcia
FedEx Cup points list ranking: 34

David Cannon/Getty Images

After his Masters victory in April, many media types pontificated that the Spaniard didn’t need to do much of anything else and the 2017 season would be considered a success. Little did everyone know Garcia would actually work to test the theory. To his credit, Garcia has missed only one cut in eight subsequent PGA Tour starts since his Augusta National glory, but he had just one top-15 finish during that time (which included getting married fiancée Angela Akins). By skipping The Northern Trust to start the FedEx Cup Playoffs, Garcia put more pressure on his performance in Boston and now this week at Conway Farms. If he can’t jump into the top 30 on the FedEx Cup points list, he’ll be AWOL the Tour Championship for the third straight year. Of course, he did win the Masters, so you’ve got to consider his season a success.

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Rory McIlroy
FedEx Cup points list ranking: 51

Icon Sportswire

The FedEx Cup jinx seems to be alive and well for McIlroy, who could become the seventh of 10 defending champions to fail to make the top 30 the following year, with only one ever finishing in the top 10 while trying to defend his title (Jordan Spieth, ninth in 2016). McIlroy’s hurdles this season—injury, equipment changes, marriage, caddie changes, etc.—have been well-documented. It’s hard to doubt his heart is still into giving this a try; why else would he be playing given his admissions that he’s not 100 percent? But the question is whether his body is going to come along for the ride.

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Phil Mickelson
FedEx Cup points list ranking: 36

Getty Images

The hard part is over now that Mickelson managed his 11th-hour heroics at the Dell Technologies Championship and rode the T-6 finish to his coveted spot on the Presidents Cup team. Yet, there’s more work to be done for Lefty if he wants to avoid missing the Tour Championship for the third time in four years.

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Gary Woodland
FedEx Cup points list ranking: 29

Stuart Franklin/Getty Images

Woodland’s 2016-’17 season was a bittersweet one as he had four top-six finishes in his first six starts before the heartbreak his family suffered when his wife lost one of their expected twin babies in the spring during her pregnancy. The other, Jaxson Lynn, was born in June, and Woodland has since been able to pay attention to his golf game again. A good week at Conway Farms will keep him in the top 30 and ensure that he can play in all four majors in 2018 and begin the new year with a favou rable schedule.

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