Here are four picks for this week’s event south of the border.
After a week off, the PGA Tour is south of the border for the 2023 World Wide Technology Championship at the Tiger Woods-designed El Cardonal at Diamante in Los Cabos, Mexico.
European Ryder Cupper Ludvig Aberg, who lost in a playoff at the Sanderson Farms Championship and tied for 13th at the Shriners Children’s Open in two starts during the FedEx Cup Fall, is the betting favorite at +900 (9/1). Cameron Young is next at +1100 (11/1), as he makes his first start since the BMW Championship. Fortinet Championship winner Sahith Theegala rounds out the top three in odds at +1600 (16/1).
Matt Kuchar owns the distinction of being the only player to qualify for the playoffs every year since 2007.
GREENSBORO, N.C. — And then there was one.
Matt Kuchar now owns the distinction of being the only player to qualify for the playoffs in each season since the inception of the FedEx Cup in 2007.
Kuchar finished T-39 at the Wyndham Championship on Sunday and enters the playoffs, which begin next week in Memphis, at No. 60 in the season-long point standings.
This season, only the top 70 in the FedEx Cup standings qualify for the first playoff event, the FedEx St. Jude Championship, down from 125 (2009-2022), which made it much tougher.
After plenty of drama, only one player, tournament winner Lucas Glover advanced to the playoffs and Austin Eckroat, who entered the week at No. 70 but missed the cut, got knocked out.
“Second place is just the first-place loser. There is no room for second place.”
With the calendar flipping to June, the PGA Tour counts eight first-time winners this season, including the duo of Davis Riley and Nick Hardy, who teamed up for their first wins at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
McCarthy isn’t alone. So far this season, 14 different players have finished runner-up or tied for second 15 times while bidding for their first Tour title. If the Netflix documentary “Full Swing” taught us anything it is that winning is hard. (Don’t drink every time a player says just that or you may not make it through a single episode.)
“The only one who will remember you if you come in second place is your wife and your dog,” World Golf Hall of Famer Gary Player once said, “and that is only if you have a good wife and a good dog.”
NASCAR’s Dale Earnhardt didn’t mince words either, saying, “Second place is just the first-place loser. There is no room for second place.”
Nevertheless, let’s take a closer look at this year’s runner-ups, who were so close to tasting victory and climbing another rung on the professional golf ladder with their first Tour wins.
A total of 21 players in the field for last year’s Genesis Invitational won’t be playing this week.
Take a look at the field for the PGA Tour’s Genesis Invitational this week in Los Angeles.
Then glance at last year’s results at the Riviera Country Club.
More than any other tournament so far on the 2022-23 Tour schedule, the impact of more than 20 former Tour players who are now playing on the LIV Golf League and are under suspension from the PGA Tour will be felt at the Genesis. It’s an impact that has been lessened with Tiger Woods’ announcement that he will play in the event he hosts, making his first start of the season.
Coincidence?
Last year’s Genesis winner, Joaquin Niemann, isn’t playing because he joined the list of players suspended by the Tour the moment he opted for the LIV Golf Series. Also missing will be Cameron Tringale (tied for 13th), Mito Pereira and Paul Casey (tied for 15th), Sebastian Munoz (tied for 21st), Jason Kokrak (tied for 26th), Cameron Smith (tied for 33rd) and Pat Perez, Abraham Ancer, Sergio Garcia and Carlos Ortiz (all tied for 39th).
Ten other players who missed the cut won’t be in L.A., including four players who have combined for nine major championships, Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson, Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed.
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That makes a total of 21 players in the field for last year’s Genesis Invitational who won’t be playing this week. There were 17 former LIV players in the field at the CJ Cup in 2022 who didn’t play this year, 16 at the Farmers Insurance Open and 15 at the WM Phoenix Open.
But the biggest impact is yet to come, and it will be on the First Coast: There will be 25 participants in last year’s Players Championship who have joined LIV Golf and are barred from entering this year. It includes Smith, whose 66 was one of the most stirring closing rounds for a winner in tournament history, runner-up Anirban Lahiri and third-place finisher Paul Casey.
Two more players who were among the top 10 also won’t be playing, Harold Varner (tied for sixth) and Johnson (tied for ninth).
It’s the nature of The Players field that it would lose more than other tournaments to the LIV suspension list. It’s the PGA Tour’s signature event, with the largest purse, and it’s always a must-play.
And their spots will be filled, by the best 144 players the Tour can get, led by the last three players to be ranked No. 1 in the world, Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm.
Also likely to play are other major champions such as Collin Morikawa, Justin Thomas, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Justin Rose, Jason Day and Hideki Matsuyama; veteran winners Billy Horschel, Patrick Cantlay and Tony Finau, and rising stars Max Homa, Tom Kim and Seamus Power.
Tiger Woods speaks with winner Joaquin Niemann following the final round of the 2022 Genesis Invitational golf tournament. (Photo: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports)
Indeed, The Players is on track to get 45 of the current top 50 in the world. LIV Golf proponents would counter that Johnson, Koepka, Reed, Kevin Na, Casey, Jason Kokrak and others have fallen out of the top 50 because the World Golf Ranking committee isn’t yet awarding points for LIV events.
And what’s that they say about every door that closes, another one opens? Having 25 spots open by the suspension of the LIV Golf pros may have simply sped up the process for the next generation of young players. Among those who are in line to make their first Players’ starts:
∎ Ryan Fox of New Zealand, who is 29th in the world, with 11 top-10 finishes and two victories worldwide in the past 18 months.
∎ Davis Thompson of St. Simons Island, Ga., the latest in a long list of University of Georgia products coming to the Tour who was matching Jon Rahm shot-for-shot for most of the final round in the American Express.
∎ Taylor Montgomery of the U.S., a former UNLV player and a deadly putter who has quietly moved into 10th on the FedEx Cup points list. He opened the season with five consecutive too-15 performances, three of them among the top 10.
∎ Ben Taylor of England, who played college golf at LSU and is a green-hitting machine, with a tie for third in Houston and a fourth at the Sony Open.
∎ Alex Smalley of the U.S., who played at Duke and tied for fifth at the RSM Classic at Sea Island in November with four rounds of 67 or better.
“Competing against the best in the world is my dream and I did that today and proved that I can hang with ’em.”
His baby face aside, Davis Thompson didn’t look like a PGA Tour rookie making his 20th start for most of the week at the 2023 American Express.
The 23-year-old Georgia grad led after the first and second rounds in the Coachella Valley, where his five eagles over 36 holes tied a record for most eagles made in a 72-hole event (1983-present). Come Sunday’s final round at the Stadium Course at PGA West in La Quinta, California, he was grouped with 2018 AmEx winner and world No. 4 Jon Rahm and J.T. Poston.
“I had a great week,” said Thompson, who ultimately finished one shot short of Rahm and what would’ve been a playoff for his first PGA Tour win on Sunday. “Competing against the best in the world is my dream and I did that today and proved that I can hang with ’em. It was a lot of fun.
“A lot of nerves and I hit a lot of quality golf shots under pressure, which was really cool.”
Thompson played the par-5s at 14 under over the first three rounds spread across La Quinta Country Club and PGA West’s Stadium and Tournament courses. On Sunday at the Stadium Course, Thompson played the four par-5s at just even par following his 2-under effort on Saturday.
“Honestly, I don’t know,” Thompson said of the difference between his two weekend rounds. “I had a few tee shots off line. I mean, didn’t really give myself a chance to go for it on 5 and 16 due to poor tee shots. As well as I played the par-5s all week I kind of didn’t really do that well today.”
“Jon making par on 5, which I thought he was going to make birdie, but he made par on 5 and birdie on 16. That was two shots,” explained Thompson. “I played those holes 1 over. So that was kind of a two-shot swing there.”
On Sunday, Thompson was T-62 in fairways hit, 62nd in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee and 54th in SG: Around the Green among the 69 players who made the cut. But his toughest break of the day came on the 17th green, where Thompson made a heartbreaking par after his birdie putt from 48 feet hit the flagstick and failed to drop in the hole. The putt would have tied he and Rahm for the lead with one hole to play.
“I usually always leave the stick in from a long distance. I feel like it helps me with my speed,” Thompson said of his decision to not pull the pin. “I’ll probably play the ‘what if’ game in my head for a long time, unfortunately.”
The missed chance on No. 17 aside, Thompson still had a shot to chip in for birdie on the final hole after missing the green with his approach. Despite his poor performance around the greens on the day, the TV broadcast fawned over Thompson’s effort to hit the tricky chip inside two feet and nearly hole out.
“I went through about every option in my head. I could have hit just a low bump and run, but that hill was so steep,” Thompson said of the show. “I laid my 60 down and I knew I had enough, I had a good enough lie to get it up quick. Just kind of goes back to if you want to make it, you chip it. If you want to hit it up close, you putt it. So I was obviously trying to make it. Figured might as well.”
Thompson has made the cut in five of his six starts so far this season and finished T-9 at the season-opening Fortinet Championship. He went toe-to-toe with one of the world’s best Sunday and didn’t back down under the most severe pressure. He’s got immense talent for his age. Moxy, too.
Keep an eye on the young rookie. You might as well.
The win is Rahm’s ninth on the PGA Tour and fourth in his last six starts.
Five players were within just one shot of the lead down the stretch on the back nine during Sunday’s final round of the 2023 American Express, setting up for a thrilling finish in the desert.
After being deadlocked with Davis Thompson for most of the afternoon, Jon Rahm took the late lead with a birdie on the par-5 16th and ultimately held on for the win at 27 under at PGA West’s Pete Dye Stadium Course. Rahm shot a 4-under 68 in the final round to earn his ninth PGA Tour win and fourth win in his last six starts.
In three starts this season on Tour, Rahm has finished T-4, T-8 and first at the season-opening Sentry Tournament of Champions two weeks ago in Hawaii. The 2018 American Express champion also now has seven straight top-8 finishes.
Thompson, a PGA Tour rookie via the Korn Ferry Tour, finished second at 26 under. In six starts so far this season, the Georgia grad has made five cuts and finished inside the top 25 twice at the Fortinet Championship and Shriners Children’s Open. Xander Schauffele, who made a rare albatross on Sunday, shot a final-round 10-under 62 to finish third at 25 under with Chris Kirk.
Thompson’s 62 matches the first-round lead from the golf course last year
The story is about as old as the 64-year-old American Express PGA Tour event.
Someone goes to La Quinta Country Club and tears apart the front nine, only to hit a wall on the back nine. Rounds that seem destined to sniff 59 suddenly turn into solid but somehow disappointing rounds in the low 60s.
The story was repeated again Thursday, with Davis Thompson providing the drama. A brilliant 8-under 28 on the front nine at La Quinta, including back-to-back eagles on the par-5s at the fifth and sixth holes, was followed by a pedestrian 2-under 34 on the tougher back nine. The result was a 10-under 62 that pushed Thompson into the first-round tournament lead but left Thompson wanting more.
“That was kind of like my biggest challenge today was staying present-minded and trying to put one foot in front of the other,” said the 23-year-old Thompson, playing in the tournament for the first time after spending 2021-22 on the Korn Ferry Tour. “Your mind definitely starts to wander a little bit. But I played enough rounds to where I try to teach myself over and over you can’t get ahead of yourself.”
Sam Burns seemed on the verge of catching Thompson most of the afternoon, going 7 under through nine holes at the tougher Pete Dye Stadium Course at PGA West. But Burns also cooled off on his final nine holes, bogeying the 18th for a 64. That left Burns in a five-way tie for second place with Jon Rahm who played at La Quinta, Tyler Duncan, who played the Nicklaus Tournament Course at PGA West, Matti Schmid, who played the Stadium Course, and Taylor Montgomery, who shot his 64 at La Quinta.
Nine players finished at 65, including Southern California PGA section representative and PGA of America player of the year Michael Block, and world No. 6 Xander Schauffele.
Thompson’s 62 at La Quinta in the first round was hardly unique for the low-scoring American Express. Patrick Cantlay and Lee Hodges shot 62 in the first round on the course last year, and Phil Mickelson fired a 60 in the first round in 2019. Rahm shot 62 at La Quinta Country Club to start the 2018 event that he won.
If there was a surprise in Thompson’s round, it was that he had never played the course in competition. But he made sure to learn something about desert layouts before coming to La Quinta.
“I was able to come out here early before I went to Hawaii (the Sony Open) and played out here on the Nicklaus Course. So I was a little familiar with it,” said Thompson, who played in eight PGA Tour events in 2020-21 and in three more in 2021-22. “But just got off to a hot start and just kind of coasted on my way in. But it’s always good to see some putts go in early and give you confidence to just keep it rolling.”
Fast start at La Quinta
Thompson birdied three of the first four holes at La Quinta before hitting the scoring holes of the fifth and sixth, consecutive par-5s that are reachable for all the PGA Tour pros. He rolled in a 12-foot putt for eagle on the fifth hole, then missed the green in two on the sixth hole but chipped in from 60 feet for his second consecutive eagle to reach 7 under through six holes.
“I had good numbers on both those holes. I actually missed the green on 6 and chipped in,” Thompson said. “I put two good swings on it and had a really nice chip and a really good putt.”
But Thompson added just one more birdie on the front nine at the ninth hole, then made birdies on the 13th and 18th holes on the back nine to cap the 62.
Rahm, ranked fourth in the world and coming off a win at the Sentry Tournament of Champions two weeks ago, didn’t have the red-hot nine like Thompson or Burns. Instead, he opened with five birdies on his front nine, including birdies on the two par-5s. He then bogeyed the 10th hole but added three consecutive birdies after that. A birdie at 17 pushed him to 64 on a course he knows he must play well.
“Give me enough time, I’ll be picky about a lot of things,” Rahm said after the round. “But it’s a great start to the tournament. You can’t really win it on this golf course, but you can sure fall off the pace. It’s a great start, solid round of golf, great putting out there. Hopefully, I can keep that going the whole week and feel a little bit better tee to green.”
Rahm was part of a field of five of the top seven players in the world in the desert tournament this week, and those players all fought into contention. Schauffele’s 66 at La Quinta left him tied for sixth. Scottie Scheffler and Patrick Cantlay each shot 68, while Will Zalatoris shot 69. In all, 123 of the 156 pros in the field broke par-72.
Rahm admits he’s playing golf as well as anyone in the world right now.
“Very confident. I think it showed out there. I didn’t have my best. I didn’t find myself in the fairway very often through the round, but was able to get birdies out of it. And that’s the beauty of that,” Rahm said. “I mean I would like people to think that it’s hard to beat me and almost impossible because, again, if I don’t have my A game and I’m shooting rounds like this it should be a pretty good year.”
It’s hard to have a much better start to a round than Davis Thompson did Thursday during his first round of The American Express at La Quinta Country Club in California.
Thompson, a 23-year-old PGA Tour rookie, was 7 under after six holes, including a stretch of 6 under in four holes that featured consecutive eagles on the par-5 fifth and par-5 sixth.
Birdie. Par. Birdie. Eagle. Eagle. Birdie. That’s a lot of circles on the card to begin the day.
Thompson became the first player since Robert Streb at the 2021 CJ Cup to go 7 under in his first six holes. He’s also the first player with consecutive eagles in a round since Shane Lowry at the 2022 Open Championship at St. Andrews.
Davis Thompson becomes the first player to play the first six holes of a round in 7-under or better since Robert Streb in the first round of the 2021 CJ CUP (-7).
The last player to make back-to-back eagles on TOUR was Shane Lowry at the 2022 Open Championship (Nos. 9-10, R3). https://t.co/XUhMEwOxQI
In six starts this season, he has made five cuts and finished T-9 at the Fortinet Championship. However, his hot start had him out front early. Thompson shot 10-under 62.
Four golfers had three eagles in one round last season: Shane Lowry, Open Championship; Trey Mullinax, AT&T Byron Nelson; Stephan Jaeger, Mexico Open at Vidanta; Carlos Ortiz, WM Phoenix Open.
David Thompson took advantage of a sponsor exemption, making birdie on half his holes to shoot a bogey-free 9-under 63 at Detroit Golf Club.
DETROIT – As the son of a PGA Tour tournament director, Davis Thompson was well-schooled in the art of writing for sponsor exemptions. His efforts earned him a spot in this week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic.
“I think this tournament was the first to reach out to me and to tell me that I had a spot, and that was back in I think late May. So, I knew I was coming here for a while,” he said. “I’m a young pro, so it’s great to have some starts out here.”
Thompson, a newly-minted pro out of the University of Georgia, will garner his fair share of sponsor invites thanks to a resume that includes being a former No. 1-ranked amateur, Walker Cupper and SEC Player of the Year. He took advantage of his opportunity on Thursday, making birdie on half his holes to shoot a bogey-free 9-under 63 at Detroit Golf Club, tying the tournament record and grabbing the lead during the rain-delayed first round.
Thompson, 22, is making just his third Tour start as a pro. He has Korn Ferry Tour status after ranking second in the PGA Tour University standings, but has been cutting his teeth in the big leagues with a T-35 at the Palmetto Championship and missed the cut last week at the Travelers Championship.
“I just kind of knew that I was close to playing well,” he said.
But 63? “I usually don’t go low often,” said Thompson, who once shot a 59 at Sea Palms in St. Simons Island, Georgia. “I just feel like I’m a pretty solid player.”
Starting on the back nine, he made with birdies on his first two holes, sticking a 4-iron to a foot at No. 11 and was off to the races. He hit 17 greens and led the field in Strokes Gained: Approach the Green and drained a 32-foot birdie putt at No. 15.
“Safe to say the putter was hot today,” Thompson said.
It also doesn’t hurt that the fledgling pro has a veteran looper on the bag in Damon Green, who caddied for Zach Johnson when he won both of his majors. Green gave his distinctive chicken dance at the seventh hole to celebrate Thompson’s eighth birdie of the day.
“I caught it out of the corner of my eye,” he said. “It’s pretty funny.”
One hole later, Thompson considered laying back off the tee, but Green told him to stay aggressive and hit driver and it set up his final birdie of the day. It assured him of being two strokes better than Brandon Hagy and Tom Lewis. When asked how it sounded to be a PGA Tour leader, Thompson sounded like a Tour veteran. “Sounds good on Sunday. It’s only Thursday,” he said. “I know I’ve got a long way to go. I’m just going to try to do the same thing tomorrow.”
Three of the five players made the cut in their professional debuts, with one top-10 finish.
PGA Tour University was designed to streamline the process for college players to advance to the professional level, and two weeks ago the inaugural class was announced.
This week the five players who earned Korn Ferry Tour membership through the end of the regular season made their professional debuts, with three players competing in the Korn Ferry Tour’s BMW Charity Pro-Am and two at the PGA Tour’s Palmetto Championship. Next week the 10 players who earned Forme Tour membership will begin their pro careers at the L&J Golf Championship.
Here’s how each of the five players fared in their professional debuts.
John Pak
The 2021 Haskins Award winner from Florida State missed the cut at the Palmetto Championship, firing rounds of 79-71 to finish at 8 over.
Davis Thompson
Thompson had the performance of the week in South Carolina. The SEC Player of the Year from Georgia finished T-35 at the Palmetto after a strong week of 71-69-71-70.
Austin Eckroat
Eckroat disagrees with the above statement. The Oklahoma State product earned a top-10 finish at the BMW Charity Pro-Am at 18 under thanks to just seven bogeys over the four sub-70 rounds.
Yu, a three-time winner at Arizona State, also made the cut at the BMW, finishing T-20 after a consistent week of 66-66-69-69 to finish at 15 under.
Garett Reband
Reband wasn’t as successful, missing the BMW cut by six strokes. That said, the Oklahoma Sooner improved on his first-round 73 with a Friday 70 to get back to even par.
