The Top 125 Chase And Hovland Add Intrigue To Wyndham Sunday

While many across America—frankly, the world—will undoubtedly be looking to see if Paul Casey and Webb Simpson can crack the Wyndham Rewards top ten, Sunday’s final round of the Wyndham Championship is the last event a player can assure himself top 125 status and a tour “card” for next year (well, this September).

While the 126 and beyond crowd still has the Korn Ferry Tour playoffs and partial status, etc.., as Beau Hossler noted in a heartfelt tweet after missing this week’s cut, the 125 number has real meaning.

Lost my tour card today. Two things: I’m lucky to be where I’m at, with the support of a great team and family. And success is going to taste much sweeter after this setback.

— Beau Hossler (@beauhossler) August 2, 2019

The 125 number also retains a certain romantic and historic significance given that there is a life-altering quality to the drama that playing for playoff money has yet to capture. Plus, getting in that 125 class is the difference between possibly playing the Northern Trust and playoff events and not battling for career relevance. Andrew Landry, Austin Cook and Shawn Stefani’s names stand out for Sunday at Sedgefield.

Here is the best way to follow the 125 chase here, with several projected to move in and several more potentially bumped according to the PGA Tour’s live tracker.

Speaking of the Wyndham Rewards, much hyped and a total non-story this week, The Forecaddie says there is an easy adjustment that could make the money meaningful in more ways than one.

But for most fans of pro golf, the emergence of Morikawa, Wolff and Viktor Hovland over the last couple of months can be capped off Sunday with Hovland finishing in a two way tie for second or better to secure his card, reports Helen Ross for PGATour.com.

Your tee times and TV coverage windows here, with Golf Channel starting at 1 pm ET and CBS taking over at 3 pm.

Despite The Leaderboard, Final WGC Fed Ex St. Jude Ratings Tumble Hard

The schedule in 2020 will stick the new Minnesota stop in the slot after The Open, so maybe this is an aberration. But given the quality of the leaderboard (Brooks Koepka/Rory McIlroy final pairing), the final ratings for the WGC FedEx St. Jude were not good.

Paulsen from SportsMediaWatch attempted to compare them to both the old WGC Bridgestone (played in August) and the FedEx St. Jude Classic’s ratings (June). And the new WGC FedEx still fell shy of those events.

Last Sunday’s final round of the PGA Tour/WGC-St. Jude Invitational averaged a 1.6 rating and 2.31 million viewers on CBS, down 30% in ratings and 33% in viewership from last year (2.3, 3.45M), and down 11% and 13% respectively from 2017 (1.8, 2.66M). The 1.6 rating is the lowest for final round coverage of the event — previously the Bridgestone Invitational — since 2012 (1.3).

Numbers for pre-coverage on Golf Channel were also way down from the event’s ratings in the August/Bridgestone slot.

Spieth: "There were times that I just went to sleep...knowing that the next day was going to be a struggle on the greens"

Pretty astounding admission from Jordan Spieth after opening the Wyndham with 23 putts en route to 64.

From Will Gray’s GolfChannel.com story on Spieth’s strongsuit returning.

“That’s a pretty massive turnaround, and I needed it,” Spieth said. “I mean, there were times that I just went to sleep not having any idea what was going on with the putter, knowing that the next day was going to be a struggle on the greens no matter what, just that kind of stuff.”

All of the great putters have had lulls, but that’s still amazing to think someone who was that good on the greens reached those depths. The effect on the rest of the game was seen and probably will be for a while as he regains his groove on the greens.

Check out this astounding round one stat from Sean Martin:

Jordan Spieth's 64 today ties his low round of the season.

The shortest putt he missed today was 19 feet, 1 inch.

— Sean Martin (@PGATOURSMartin) August 1, 2019

1.8 Overnight For WGC FedEx St. Jude, 0.6 For Senior Open

Austin Karp reports on ratings from the weekend where the good news for golf was that it led the way with a 1.8 final round rating for the WGC FedEx St. Jude. The bad news? There was nothing of note in the way of network sports programming and sponsor FedEx did not get the eyeballs their predecessor enjoyed for the premium WGC experience.

A week later last year and then the WGC Bridgestone, the 2018 event drew a 2.5 final round rating.

The Senior Open won by Bernhard Langer drew a .5 and .6 respectively on NBC.

Too Soon To Wonder If The New Major Season Is Too Condensed?

That’s the question posed by Eamon Lynch for Golfweek as we are 250 days from the next major. But one thing we can all agree on: the fall schedule is anchored by a team event in December this year.

The Fall schedule ought to be more than an opportunity for journeymen to get a head start on FedEx Cup points before the stars return from vacation at Kapalua in January, but it lacks an anchor event. The Tour created this barren expanse on the calendar to protect the FedEx Cup playoffs — which is fair enough, since that’s where the bankroll is — and could remedy it by moving the Players Championship to the Fall. It won’t happen, of course. Even being the biggest event of the early wraparound season would still be seen as diminishing the Players, and ratings might suffer against the pigskin. So the highlight of our Fall will be a broadcast from Royal Melbourne in the middle of the night after all, this one the Presidents Cup.

A few have questioned this publicly and quite a few more privately for a variety of reasons. Players are not seeing the wisdom in the tighter major window and have played less around the majors. With some high profile defections at the WGC FedEx St. Jude and an even bigger no-show rate for the Wyndham Championship (you know, to help your playoff position), cracks have appeared in the new schedule concept. Namely: it’s weakening the very “product” it was meant to strengthen.

I think we need a little more time to mull the question as the only meaningful reversal will come after a new TV deal starts and the various majors have considered how the schedule plays out. The 2019-20 schedule is due out any day now and 20-21 won’t change much either.

But my initial take as a supporter of the new schedule’s tighter structure? The majors are stronger for it despite what players may legitimately think is too short of a window. The surrounding professional events on all tours have been weakened instead of strengthened as players conserve energy, and the PGA Tour Playoffs arrive too close on the heals of the majors. Given that the entire thing was built around avoiding football season and making the PGA Tour playoffs a bigger deal, the early reactions may force a re-thinking or even a scrapping of the wraparound schedule concept entirely.

Brooks Doesn't Need No (Lengthy) Warm-Up: Wins WGC St. Jude, Wraps Player Of The Year

Rolling in just David Cobb details Koepka’s low-key arrival less than an hour before teeing off and with only a little time spent on the range. Turns out, it was only a few minutes less than his normal Sunday warm-up.

Please Brooks, don’t be mad we didn’t know this!

As Brian Wacker correctly notes here for GolfDigest.com, the POY race is now over before the Tour Championship, if it was a race, given Koepka’s play in the majors (T2-1-2-T4).

Wyndham Rewards Chase Ends A Week Early Because No One (With A Chance To Win) Is Playing The Wyndham

We’ve heard all year about the excitement of the Wyndham Rewards chase—a $10 million bonus pool to make players add the Wyndham Championship to their schedule—but it’s all over. That’s partially the fault of winner Brooks Koepka, and also because it was not a well-conceived bonus pool.

As Rex Hoggard reports here for GolfChannel.com, only Paul Casey from the top 10 receiving the bonus money is playing this week’s Wyndham, with the rest passing up the event. The pool was added presumably to incentivize players to tee it up at the Wyndham and reward season long play. It managed the latter but doesn’t do this week’s event much good, or make that $10 million investment exactly sing.

Here’s what was promised when announced last fall:

The bonus program will provide additional drama to the Regular Season finale and also place a greater premium on full-season performance, thus elevating the significance of each tournament on the schedule.

"The Wyndham Championship plays a pivotal role in the regular season as it's the last chance players have to secure a spot in the FedExCup Playoffs," said Eliot Hamlisch, vice president and leader of the Wyndham Rewards program. "In joining with the PGA TOUR to introduce the Wyndham Rewards Top 10, we're not only elevating the significance of our own tournament, but also placing a premium on great golf all season long. What's more, as the world's most generous rewards program, we couldn't think of a more fitting way to recognize the PGA TOUR's best of the best than by saying, 'You've earned this.' "

You’ve earned it, and you don’t have to play the Wyndham to cash the check!

From Portrush To TPC Southwind: Don't Tell Memphis This Is A Bad Thing

Mark Giannotto gets a very long column out of a harmless, and accurate Tweet from Kyle Porter about the jarring nature of the visual eye candy that was Portrush, and most of golf’s best turning up this week at TPC Southwind.

I get the sensitivity in Memphis but his comment was clearly directed at the beauty of Portrush and not a statement about the city, state, children’s hospital or anything else. Few people are looking forward to TPC Southwind after glorious Portrush. Make that, none are.

He at least blames the tour for this scheduling oddity, which will hopefully be remedied by a new date or putting this WGC out to pasture. The latter is an unlikely scenario.

Now it should be noted that Porter’s tweet did get at one notable issue this year. If you ignored that 46 of the world’s top 50 golfers will be here this week, it’s easy to see why a historic event for Memphis is being looked down upon by outsiders.

The PGA Tour deserves some blame for that.

FedEx used its leverage as the title sponsor of the Tour to get a world-class golf tournament in Memphis that still benefits St. Jude, a cause as worthy as any in professional sports. But then the Tour mucked it all up with its new, condensed schedule this season, effectively diminishing an event considered just a notch below a major by putting it immediately after a major.

New 3M Open Takes A Ratings Dip Over Comparable Week, Perhaps Fueled By AT&T Dispute

It was an auspicious kick off to the new 3M Open with a thrilling final round headlined by Matthew Wolff’s last hole eagle to top Bryson DeChambeau’s last hole eagle, but some reported affiliates signing off as the event ran long. Others noted an AT&T satellite dispute with that meant coverage on at all for many.

Paulsen at Sports Media Watch compares ratings with last year’s 2018 Greenbrier Classic, now a fall event. He also notes pretty steady early round numbers and a nice increase over the 2019 Rocket Mortgage event’s ratings.

Disruption Has Arrived At 19 As Wolff Joins Woods And Crenshaw As Only Reigning NCAA Individual Champs To Win On Tour

Dave Shedloski was on site at the 3M Open where Matthew Wolff exceeded his incredible promise with a thrilling last hole eagle to hold off a big, diverse cast, including Bryson DeChambeau, who also eagled the last.

From Shedloski’s Golf World story, full of answers to your questions about one of the more fascinating and fun PGA Tour finishes in some time.

This was fun and probably true, though Brooks Koepka may take offense to the winning notion:

OSU assistant coach Donnie Darr reminded him just how ready he was in a text Saturday night after Wolff joined Morikawa in Sunday’s final pairing—which in and of itself was rather remarkable. Wolff entered the final round as co-leader with Morikawa and DeChambeau, making him the youngest player ever to hold a 54-hole lead.

“He [Darr] was pretty much telling me, ‘You can do it. Your winning is no different at any level,’ ” Wolff said. “He kind of made a little stat. He said, ‘In the last six months, you probably won more than any single person in this field.’ That kind of hit me. I know how to seal the deal, and I live for moments like that putt or those clutch moments where you have to step up to the stage.”

And while the course didn’t exactly look like my cup of tea and had the impossible task of following coverage from Lahinch, what a start for the 3M Open. Betting this has never happened before:

“Who could have scripted having two of the youngest kids on tour battling for it,” Hollis Cavner, 3M Open executive director, said. “We called the tour and asked them had they ever seen this, with two sponsor’s exemptions in the final group, and they said there’s no way. And then the way it unfolded. Unbelievable.”

Ryan Lavner, who has covered Wolff for GolfChannel.com, assesses the win and the disruptor tag coming to fruition quickly.

David Dusek with what’s in Wolff’s all-Taylor Made bag.

Bill Speros rounds up Wolff’s best comments post-round.

Here are the PGA Tour Entertainment highlight packages, starting with round 4 followed by a Wolff-specific set:

In the final round of the 2019 3M Open, Matthew Wolff wins by one shot over Bryson DeChambeau and Collin Morikawa after sinking a 26-foot eagle putt on No. 18. SUBSCRIBE to PGA TOUR now: http://pgat.us/vBxcZSh The 3M Open will be the first regular PGA TOUR event held in Minnesota in 50 years.

In the final round of the 2019 3M Open, Matthew Wolff won his first PGA TOUR event by one shot after draining a clutch eagle putt from the fringe. SUBSCRIBE to PGA TOUR now: http://pgat.us/vBxcZSh The 3M Open will be the first regular PGA TOUR event held in Minnesota in 50 years.

And the best young imitator I’ve seen so far, a pupil of a fantastic Instagram follow and PGA instructor, Colin McCarthy, named Chad Caldwell.

View this post on Instagram

Look out @matthew_wolff5 Chad is comin' for ya 👊🏼 #goodluck #3mopen #10yearsold #sundayfunday #golfswing #golfcoach • • • • • • • #golfgods #thisiswhyweplay #fun #golf#whyilovethisgame #golf #juniorgolf #golfinstruction #golfcoach #golfer #coach #pgatour #golfcourse #instagood #instagolf #golfchannel #golfdigest #mattwolff

A post shared by Colin McCarthy, PGA (@colinmccarthypga) on Jul 7, 2019 at 12:00pm PDT

How Hollis Cavner Got The PGA Tour Back To Minnesota

The Star Tribune’s Jim Souhan does a wonderful job highlighting the career and efforts of Hollis Cavner, the well-liked longtime tournament director who built the Champions Tour’s 3M Championship into this week’s new PGA Tour event, the 3M Open.

Besides detailing how the TPC Twin Cities has evolved from the first time he showed it to Arnold Palmer, the story largely centers around Cavner and his team’s effort to bring the PGA Tour to Minnesota via his Pro Links Sports.

Cavner ran senior or Champions Tour events in Minnesota through last year, while constantly working to land a PGA Tour stop for Minnesota.

“That actually started back in the ’90s,” he said. “With Arnold and everybody else we worked with, when we were building the TPC we always laid it out for a PGA Tour event. We didn’t need all of this room for a Champions Tour event.”

That spaciousness will come in handy this week. For the last few years of the Champions Tour’s 3M Championship, Cavner didn’t charge admission. For the 3M Open, he has recruited a remarkably strong field and the Zac Brown Band to draw paying audiences to Blaine.

Cavner did so with relentless networking and old-fashioned hospitality. He played host to decision-makers and celebrities at his home in Augusta, Ga., during the Masters, and leaned on his reputation as someone who treats players well at his tournaments.

The field is headlined by Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Phil MIckelson.

Ratings: 1.5 For 2019 Rocket Mortgage Final Round, .6 For U.S. Senior Open

The numbers sounds pretty low but given that they were competing, the NBA free agency frenzy had drawn a million viewers over to ESPN2, the overnights reported by SBD’s Austin Karp may not be that awful. Nate Lashley had a huge lead in the inaugural Rocket Mortgage and the U.S. Senior Open featured a five-hour final round telecast (why!).

Last week, the Travelers saw steep declines on CBS, reports Paulsen at Sports Media Watch.

Last Sunday’s final round of the PGA Tour Hartford Open earned a 1.4 rating and 2.17 million viewers on CBS, down 30% in both measures from last year (2.0, 3.09M), and down 39% and 38% respectively from 2017 (2.3, 3.50M). It was the lowest rated and least-watched final round of the tournament since 2016 (0.9, 1.42M).

Third round action had a 1.1 (-21%) and 1.53 million (-28%). Lead-in coverage on Golf Channel had a 0.36 (-27%) and 527,000 (-26%) on Saturday and a 0.42 (-19%) and 661,000 (-15%).

Nate Lashley Leads In Detroit: Some Six-Stroke Leads Are Much More Compelling Than Others

You might see a six-stroke lead by the world no. 353 and pass on the Rocket Mortgage Classic final round, where Nate Lashley is 23-under-par after his second 63 of the week. (Full coverage times here.)

But anyone remotely familiar with his story—or those with a pulse—will be pulling for the 36-year-old who tried to Monday qualify for this event, only to get in on his status. Though as Bob Narang’s story and interview with Lashley from three years ago details, it’s been an understandably complicated journey for the former All-American since losing his parents and girlfriend in a plane crash.

His youthful appearance belies some of the hardships Lashley has endured since his parents died. Competing in tournaments where the majority of the competitors are younger than him, Lashley said he's learned many lessons along the way.

"It puts some perspective on life because you never know what's going to happen," Lashley said. "It makes golf a little easier from looking at the perspective that golf isn't such a big deal.

"That never seems to be the case. It never seems to get easier. I try not to let it daily affect my life and be as difficult, but you have to fight through it. It happens to a lot of people. You have to keep fighting."

Nine Things To Know About Detroit Golf Club...

Not a Five Families meeting…

Fine research and listicle-ish reporting from Ben Everill at PGATour.com to get you in the mood for this week’s new PGA Tour stop at Detroit Golf Club, with its fine history and relatively unknown place in the game.

This one blew my mind…

Due to World War II, the Ryder Cup was put on hold. But before the 1939 matches were officially cancelled, most of the U.S. team captained by Walter Hagen had been selected. Gene Sarazen, a member of Hagen’s first six Ryder Cup teams, was not on the list, and he took it as a slight. Hagen said his team could not be beaten; Sarazen said he could pick other golfers who could beat Hagen’s crew. The challenge was accepted and the two “teams” of Americans played a series of matches for charity. The first one, in 1940, was at Oakland Hills, with Hagen’s team (that included Byron Nelson and Sam Snead) winning.

In 1941, the challenge matches were held at Detroit Golf Club. Sarazen was determined to beat Hagen, and so he called in a “ringer,” managing to coax 39-year-old Bobby Jones out of retirement.

Who knew!

"Can this woman save Detroit’s public golf courses from extinction?"

Great to see Golf.com’s Max Marcovitch use the opportunity provided by the Rocket Mortgage Classic to highlight the sad (and endangered) state of Detroit muni’s.

In particular, the Donald Ross-designed Rackham is in danger and Karen Peek is working to keep it going.

Rackham is six miles north of Detroit Golf Club, site of this week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic. It doesn’t get the attention that DGC does but it has rich history of its own, extending back to its opening in 1923. Ben Davis, the first black head pro at a municipal course in the U.S., taught there for 50 years. Among his students was famed boxer Joe Louis, a Rackham regular. The two would play money matches. In the 1940s, Louis hosted an annual golf tournament at Rackham, aimed at showcasing talented black players.

Rackham is also where Peek fell in love with the game. As a kid, she convinced her best friend to attend a youth golf clinic with her at the course. Volunteer pros — Davis among them — painted small circles on the 1st fairway and had the juniors swing their clubs back and forth for one carefree hour. Peek was hooked. She recounts excitedly slinging her golf bag over her shoulder and riding her bike down to the course.

Fifty years later, the details flow with a nostalgic yearn. The clinics were a staple in a vibrant golfing community. For Peek, they were the gateway to her livelihood.