It’s unlikely an ice bath will cool Viktor Hovland down, but that’s how he planned to spend Saturday night. As Altanta boiled, Hovland’s play at East Lake was nearly as hot. He tapped in for a 66 just after 8pm —the late finish due to a 75-minute weather delay — and took a six-shot lead after 54 holes in the Tour Championship. It left the 25-year-old with 18 hours to waste before a tee time that should yield a FedEx Cup victory and $18 million pay day.

“[I’m going to] jump in the ice bath, get some physio done and just go to bed,” Hovland said of his rather un-wild Saturday night plans. “The tee time will come around pretty quickly.”

Hovland’s 20-under-par total through three rounds (he began the Tour Championship at eight-under using the adjusted scoring format) left East Lake specialist Xander Schauffele in his wake at 14-under. Schauffele has played some decent rounds at East Lake — 24 of his 27 trips around the layout have been under par. He’s never finished worse than tied seventh in six previous visits. But the 2017 Tour Championship winner conceded his Saturday 68 gave Hovland far too much room.

“Not good enough,” Schauffele said when asked to describe his round. “I missed two short putts on 15 and 18. I wouldn’t have gained anything on the leader.”

Aside from missing short putts, it’s hard to gain anything on a sublimely talented player whose work ethic at the back end of the season has been noticed by Schauffele and other members of the PGA Tour elite.

“He’s just playing unbelievable golf,” Schauffele said. “He’s been working really hard. I saw him working hard through the playoffs. I was out late, and he was one of the guys I always saw until dark as well. So, no surprise.”

That work paid off last week when Hovland won the BMW Championship at Olympia Fields outside Chicago with a final-round 61. Considered one of the game’s best drivers and a fine putter, the five-time tour winner has turned his short game around dramatically in the past 12 months. In his words, he’s a more complete player.

“I don’t think I’ve ever played as well [as] this stretch. I’ve certainly hit the ball this good before,” Hovland said. “I feel like I’ve hit the ball better than I have this week and even last week.

“But it’s just about putting it all together, and it seemed like the good weeks that I’ve had before I’ve always managed to short-side myself or chip [poorly] a couple times and end up out of contention.

“This year, I feel like I’ve just become a little bit more complete, and I don’t have to hit it my best to be in contention. I don’t have to hit every shot pure. I can miss it slightly and get up and down and move on.”

That doesn’t bode well for the chasers. Keegan Bradley (70) and overnight co-leader Collin Morikawa (73), tied at seven back, appear to be playing for Ryder Cup captain’s picks, which will be announced by Zach Johnson Tuesday. Two of this year’s major winners, Masters champ Jon Rahm and US Open winner Wyndham Clark, are 11-under alongside Scottie Scheffler, who squandered his two-shot advantage pre-tournament with two rounds over par, including Saturday’s 73.

“I know what I need to do [Sunday],” Schauffele said. “I need to go out and try and put as much pressure on him tomorrow on that front nine as I can and hope for the best.”

Hope may be Schauffele’s only tool to reel in Hovland, who is determined to add his name to illustrious group to have won the FedEx Cup since its 2007 inception — Tiger Woods (twice) and Rory McIlroy (three), among the champions.

“The list of names that’s been on that trophy is pretty special, and it would be awesome to have my name on there,” Hovland said. “It’s a marathon getting into this week, but [the Tour Championship itself] feels more like a sprint.”

If it’s a sprint, then all signs point to Hovland running away with it.

The post Viktor Hovland is close to putting Tour Championship on ice appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Daniel Rapaport
Brooks Koepka withdrew from the Tour Championship on Saturday with a left wrist injury. He appeared to sustain the injury when he tried to extricate his ball from deep rough right of the 10th fairway and struck a tree root. The world No. 10 tried to continue despite being in visible discomfort but made it only two-plus more holes; he was three over par through 12 on his round and one-under total when he made the decision to leave East Lake.

“It’s the same wrist I had issues with in ‘17 and ’18,” Koepka said to a PGA Tour official before leaving. “So I’m just making sure it’s OK.”

Koepka is referring to a left wrist injury that forced him to miss the 2018 Masters.

Given his withdrawal, Koepka will finish 30th in the final FedEx Cup standings—last among the field at the Tour Championship—and collect a $395,000 bonus.

Brooks Koepka has withdrawn from the @PlayoffFinale with a left wrist injury. pic.twitter.com/8R0q0I1tKI

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) September 4, 2021

The timing of the injury is concerning, given the Ryder Cup begins in less than three weeks. Koepka finished fourth in the U.S. points list to auto-qualify for his third consecutive Ryder Cup team.

It’s also another health concern for a player who’s been plagued for the last two years by knee injuries—one to his left knee, which forced him to withdraw from the 2019 Presidents Cup team; and one to his right, which required surgery on March 16 to repair a kneecap dislocation and ligament damage. He miraculously returned to competition at the Masters less than a month later but has continued to move cautiously throughout the season.

Should Koepka be unable to compete in the Ryder Cup, U.S. captain Steve Stricker would be given a seventh captain’s pick to fill his spot. Stricker is set to name his six picks in a news conference on Wednesday.

Koepka was set to play left-handed in a charity match against Dave Portnoy of Barstool Sports at Liberty National in New Jersey on Tuesday. The event was cancelled after the injury. 

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The goal, however, likely changed after completing the first four holes on Sunday, when Garcia went birdie-eagle-par-birdie to suddenly sit just a stroke off the lead. Forget top 30 … how about win the damn tournament! Especially with the drivable par-4 fifth hole next up, providing another realistic birdie opportunity.

While Garcia’s drive ended up in the front greenside bunker on the 306-yard hole, an up-and-down birdie was still possible. Until this happened …

Sergio Garcia was -4 thru 4.

He ends up with a double bogey at the 5th after struggles in the bunker. pic.twitter.com/F2vVgOGXM7

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 29, 2021

Yep, that wasn’t a replay of one bunker shot, but rather two straight bunker shots that Garcia unfortunately left in the sand.

Finally, on the green in four, Garcia’s two-putt for a double-bogey 6 was made more frustrating by the fact that no player had double bogeyed the hole all week. Yikes!

When Garcia was four under on the round, he had risen to 17th in the FedEx Cup projected standings, but the double dropped him back to 27th. Needless to say, the rest of Sunday’s final round got a lot tenser than Garcia probably was hoping for.

The post Sergio Garcia picked a really bad time to leave his ball in a bunker … twice appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Tod Leonard
There would be no miracle shots or putts this time to deny Dustin Johnson. He simply wouldn’t let that happen with his own sublime play.

Starting Labor Day Monday with a commanding five-shot lead in the Tour Championship, the coolest guy in the game faced some back-nine pressure in the final round at East Lake in Atlanta. Justin Thomas and Xander Schauffele both pressed the world’s No. 1 player by closing his lead to just two shots.

But Johnson responded as he’s done so many times in winning 22 previous PGA Tour events. After he drained a 21-foot putt to save par on the 13th hole, Johnson sauntered to four pars and a birdie the rest of the way to capture his first Tour Championship and the $15 million FedEx Cup Playoffs prize that goes with it. He is the first No. 1 seed going into the playoffs to capture the title since Tiger Woods in 2009.

The 36-year-old Johnson, who forged his big lead by tying the tournament-best score of 64 in the third round, closed with a two-under-par 68 and finished at 21 under to beat Thomas (66) and Schauffele (66) by three shots. Schauffele had a birdie putt on 18 that was worth $500,000 more to him if he finished alone in the No. 2 FedEx Cup spot, but he missed and shared second with Thomas. They each won $4.5 million.

In the PGA Tour’s staggered-start format for the Tour Championship, Johnson started the event at 10 under—three shots ahead of Thomas and seven ahead of Schauffele.

“I wanted to be a FedEx Cup champion,” Johnson said immediately afterward. “It’s something in my career I’d like to be, and obviously today I got the FedEx Cup. Very proud of the way I played. I’ve played really good golf over the last four tournaments.”

Johnson, who struggled for a couple of weeks with a back injury in July—including shooting back-to-back 80s at the Memorial—after he won the Travelers Championship, was the runaway star of the playoffs. After tying for second in the PGA Championship, he blew away the field by 11 shots, shooting 30 under in the first postseason event, The Northern Trust. He was in position to take last week’s BMW Championship, but Jon Rahm beat him by draining a 66-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole.

On Monday, Johnson didn’t make a birdie between the seventh and 17th holes—after he birdied three of the first six. He suffered back-to-back bogeys at Nos. 7 and 8. But from there he didn’t find much trouble, and when he was in the trees after his drive at 13 and couldn’t reach the green, he made the huge up-and-down for par.

RELATED: The clubs Dustin Johnson used to win the FedEx Cup

Schauffele, who won the 2017 Tour Championship and has three career top-three finishes in the playoffs, applied some pressure when he made birdies at 12 and 16 to get to within two, but he pulled his last two tee shots left—into a fairway bunker at 17 and the rough at 18—to not have a realistic chance to make birdie.

Thomas, who won the 2017 FedEx Cup championship and now has three top-three finishes in the playoffs in the last four years, birdied the 16th to get to within two. But he bogeyed the 17th before birdieing the 18th.

The post Dustin Johnson wins Tour Championship and $15 million FedEx Cup title appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Unfortunately for Rose, it wasn’t the good kind of memorable.

In his final round at the Tour Championship, Rose pulled his approach shot left at the long par-4 eighth, but the ball managed to stay up in the Bermudagrass rough and out of the pond. That would be Rose’s last bit of luck on the hole.

The 2013 U.S. Open winner made four passes at the greenside chip, his ball rolling back to his feet after the first three.

Golf is hard.

Every golfer can relate. pic.twitter.com/NBzSCFafHn

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 25, 2019

The fourth managed to find the green, where Rose missed his save for triple. Damndest thing was that quadruple-bogey came after Rose had carded four birdies in his previous five holes.

Not the way Rose wanted to finish his tour season. Then again, he pulled in $10 million from this rodeo last year, so we’re sure he’ll bounce back.

The post Watch Justin Rose chunk three consecutive chips to make a quadruple-bogey at the Tour Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Brian Wacker
While Xander Schauffele was on his way to becoming the first rookie to win the PGA Tour’s season-ending Tour Championship on Sunday at East Lake, the algorithmists back in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., were hard at work telling us who might win the FedEx Cup and the $10 million that goes with it. Overnight leader Paul Casey. Justin Thomas. Jordan Spieth.

At one point with a handful of holes to go, a possible playoff between Thomas and Spieth for all the lettuce and the sterling-silver spun trophy designed by Tiffany & Co.

“I laughed when I saw that,” Thomas said. “I thought honestly, this probably will happen and the golf world will completely blow up and lose its mind if Jordan and I were in a playoff for the FedEx Cup.”

Schauffele, who came into the week 26th in the points standings and with about as much chance of winning Powerball as the tour’s granddaddy of ’em all, even had an outside shot on Sunday before ending up third.   “I almost cheated my way into winning the FedEx Cup when [JT] really deserved it,” said Spieth, who had he finished second and Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Marc Leishman and Jon Rahm all finished T-2 or worse, would have done just that.

There were two other scenarios in which Spieth could have finished third or fourth and also won, which had he done so he would have been the first player since the inception of the FedEx Cup to have captured the end trophy without having won a Playoff event.

In the end it was a moot point. Thomas, who ended the year with five wins, including a major, finished second alone at East Lake, one stroke back of Schauffele after a stellar final-round 66 to take home his first FedEx Cup trophy.

“Feels very weird,” Thomas said. “It’s odd getting something so tremendous, one of my best achievements in my career without winning a golf tournament, so it feels different, but it’s still great.”

Clearly what’s not so great is the system, something that, as reported by the Associated Press earlier in the week, could see an overhaul in the future.

This is to take nothing away from Thomas. No one won more than he did this season (Johnson was second with four, while Spieth had three victories, including a major) and one of those victories came during the playoffs two weeks ago at TPC Boston. In 25 worldwide starts, he had a dozen top-10s and for good measure also had a 59 at the Sony Open in Hawaii and a 63 in the U.S. Open.

When it came to this week, Thomas didn’t want to know about all the math behind the FedEx Cup. All he cared about was winning, and he nearly did it for a sixth time this season.

“I knew if I won, finished second, maybe tied second I probably had a good chance depending on what Jordan did today, but I truly didn’t know,” he said. “It is weird just because I compared it earlier to Q school … you almost get out there not trying to win, you’re trying to finish a certain thing.

“If you told someone that going into a tournament, you’re like, Yeah, I’m just trying to finish better than 45th, it’s like why are you going? What’s the point of even going? I thought about that out there on the course today. It’s like why am I’m going to try for finish third?”

Even Schauffele, someone who 12 months ago didn’t even know if he’d have a tour card, or midway through the year wasn’t sure if he’d be able to keep it, said it felt a little strange.

Not that he was complaining. Nor was Thomas.

Both walked away winners, the first time that has happened since 2009 when Phil Mickelson won the tournament and Tiger Woods the FedEx Cup. It also happened in 2007.

One tournament, two trophies. It’s always been a possibility and will continue to be.

At least the right player won the big one. It wouldn’t have felt that way otherwise.

The post The right golfer won the FedEx Cup title even if he didn’t win the Tour Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Alex Myers
After completing a season in which he won five times, claimed his first major and captured the FedEx Cup, it shouldn’t be surprising to learn that Justin Thomas accomplished most of the goals he set for himself at the start of the year. But just how close the 24-year-old star came to achieving everything he hoped is pretty damn impressive. And following a runner-up at the Tour Championship that locked up the PGA Tour Player of the Year Award, Thomas shared that list of goals with reporters at East Lake. As in, the actual list.

Here is Justin Thomas showing off those goals: pic.twitter.com/79K3SqQ1bj

— Jason Sobel (@JasonSobelTAN) September 24, 2017

Just a little different than the goals you type on your phone, huh?

Seriously, what a list. And as you can see by the Feb. 27 timestamp, this isn’t something Thomas concocted recently. That looks to be the last time JT modified the document, probably typing the two “Y”s next to his top two goals having already won three early season events that locked up his spot in the Tour Championship. Let’s go through the rest of the list:

Be in the final 2 groups of a major on Sunday — Y

Win a major — Y

Make Presidents Cup — Y

+.25 strokes gained putting — Y (+.289, which ranked 47th on tour)

Above 1 strokes gained tee to green — Y (+1.33, which was good for 6th)

Top 10 in all-around stats — Y (Thomas finished 6th)

Under par on par 3/4/5 — N (But close. JT’s stroke average on par 4s and 5s was under par and he was just over on par 3s at 3.04)

Top 30 in scrambling — N (But not terrible at 54th, and much improved from 151st last season)

Top 10 in half my starts — Y (Technically, Thomas was just under at 12 out of 25, but if you don’t count the Dell Match Play. . . )

Under 70 scoring average — Y (Easily at 69.359, ranking third)

Less short sides — We’re going to assume “Y” on this as well.

Incredible. And it should also be noted that Thomas actually accomplished more than what’s on this ambitious list. Nowhere on there does it say “Shoot a 59” or “Shoot 63 in the U.S. Open.” Check and check. It also doesn’t say “Have a great #SB2K17” or “Edge Jordan for Player of the Year.” Done and done.

So congrats to JT on a phenomenal season and for basically doing exactly what he set out to do. We can only imagine what he’s going to jot down for an encore.

The post Justin Thomas shares the detailed goals he wrote down at the beginning of the season — and they were ridiculously on point appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Christopher Powers

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