Loy Golf

NAPLES, Fla. -- Patton Kizzire and Brian Harman won the QBE Shootout on Sunday, eagling the par-5 17th and closing with a par for a one-stroke victory over Graeme McDowell and Emiliano Grillo. Kizzire and Harman shot an 11-under 61 in the better-ball final round to finish at 30 under at Tiburon Golf Club. They opened with a 59 in the first-round scramble and had a 66 on Saturday in modified alternate shot. McDowell and Grillo shot 62, making seven straight birdies on Nos. 11-17. The teams of Gary Woodland-Charley Hoffman, Kevin Na-Bryson DeChambeau and Luke List-Charles Howell III tied for third at 28 under. Woodland and Hoffman shot 63, Na and DeChambeau 62, and List and Howell had two back-nine eagles in a 61. Kizzire and Harman each earned $422,500. LPGA Tour player Lexi Thompson and Tony Finau had a 65 to finish seventh at 23 under. NOTES Patton Kizzire/Brian Harman (1st/-30) Birdies came at Nos. 1, 3, 4, 9-11 and 13-15. An eagle-3 at No. 17 moved the duo to their ...

THE OVERVIEW For a minute there, a few people started to lose sight of Brandt Snedeker. Injuries and a winless run of more than two years meant he fell into the shadows of consciousness while others stepped up to fill the breach. Despite the fact he was still playing decent golf, he could feel it. But the 37-year-old and past FedExCup champion was not ready to be forgotten, as he re-announced himself with his sublime efforts at the Wyndham Championship. There he opened with a famous 11-under 59, becoming the 10th and most recent member of the very exclusive (sub-60) club. He would go on to win the ninth title of his PGA TOUR career. Not content to stop there, he has already notched up a runner-up finish in the new season, falling in a playoff to Kevin Tway at the Safeway Open. He now has his sights set on a return to the TOUR Championship and another FedExCup title. His last trip to East Lake came in 2016 – a stat that does not sit well with a man with six trips to the P...

FEDEXCUP UPDATE Current 2018-19 position: 129th Playoff appearances: 2 TOUR Championship appearances: 2 Best result: 5th in 2017 SHOTLINK FUN FACT Jon Rahm is one of seven players who have averaged four or more birdies per round in each of the last two PGA TOUR seasons. INSIDER INSIGHTS PGATOUR.COM’s Insiders offer their expert views on what to expect from Jon Rahm in 2019. TOUR INSIDER: A lot of TOUR pros run hot, but Rahm can reach molten levels of intensity. For the most part, you’d have to say he has channeled it well. Two wins in two full TOUR seasons? Not bad at all. But golf is most infuriating on the greens, where Rahm dropped to 135th in Strokes Gained: Putting last season, and one can’t help but wonder if there’s a connection and his temper is hurting him. Can he cool the fire and let it happen on the greens? To be continued. – By Cameron Morfit FANTASY INSIDER: Not surprisingly, after experiencing the challenge of balancing focus of his imminent debut in t...

OVERVIEW One of the goals for Jon Rahm, who turned 24 last month, will be to make this season less like last season and more like 2017. At least with respect to putting. Two seasons ago Rahm was one of the hottest players in golf as he was 48th in Strokes Gained: Putting and 2nd in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee. He won the Farmers Insurance Open and pushed Dustin Johnson to the brink in the championship match of the World Golf Championship-Dell Technologies Match Play. Rahm looked like a complete player. Last season that wasn’t the case, as he dropped all the way to 135th in SG: Putting while dropping just one spot to 3rd in SG: Off-the-Tee. As a result, Rahm went long stretches without popping up on any leaderboards. He finished fourth at the Masters but missed the cut at the U.S. Open and The Open Championship. Then he was back with a T4 at the PGA Championship. When the putter is hot or at least warm, Rahm remains dangerous. Although his performances were uneven in 2018, he p...

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA – Longtime Reno-Tahoe Tournament volunteer Henry “Skip” Monge was honored by the PGA TOUR at the TOUR’s Tournament Meetings on December 6 as the 2018 PGA TOUR Volunteer of the Year. Monge began volunteering at the Reno-Tahoe Tournament in 2004 as a marshal before moving into the position of hole captain. After a stint as both the front- and back-nine hole manager, he became the Marshal Chair, a post he has held since 2012. Since he took over as Marshal Chair, Monge increased the number of marshals from 80 to 185, personally recruiting and training new volunteers. While Monge lives in Arizona, he stays connected with his captains year-round. In addition to his role at the Reno-Tahoe Tournament, Monge has lent his time and talents to other PGA TOUR, PGA TOUR Champions, LPGA Tour and USGA events. “In the past 16 years, Skip has volunteered more than 6,500 hours for the PGA TOUR, and that's just ‘on-course’ hours,” said Chris Hoff, Tournament Director o...

LUTZ, Florida – Gibby Gilbert III (Hixson, Tennessee) secured his fully-exempt status for the 2019 season after finishing at 4-under 280 to earn medalist honors Friday at PGA TOUR Champions Q-School. Skip Kendall (Windermere, Florida) and Cliff Kresge (Kingsport, Tennessee) finished runner-up, one stroke behind Gilbert. Greg Kraft (Belleair, Florida) and Stephen Leaney (Perth, Australia) survived a four-man, sudden-death playoff to earn the final two fully-exempt statuses available through the 72-hole Q-School at TPC Tampa Bay. Gilbert made a 70-foot putt on the final hole of the final round to secure his PGA TOUR Champions card for the 2019 season. His 6-under 65 on Friday was the result of eight birdies and a 5-under 31 on the back nine. “I bogeyed the first hole and was 1-over through six but was able to start making some good putts and good shots,” said Gilbert. “I was just trying to get the putt close to the hole as I could. I have never made a putt before in my career that ...

OVERVIEW It took nearly nine years between PGA TOUR wins for Paul Casey, a drought he doesn’t intend to replicate. The 41-year-old veteran buried some demons on U.S. soil at the Valspar Championship last season, a feat more incredible given Tiger Woods was on of the closest pursuers. The raucous crowd was willing Woods home but they could not deter the Englishman, who posted a final-round 65 and watched as Woods and Patrick Reed failed to match him. It has now been four straight seasons with a TOUR Championship berth for Casey, where he has notched up 29 top-10s. But he knows he should have more wins. He led the Travelers Championship by four through 54 holes last season and dropped to a runner-up finish. As he gets closer to the end than the beginning of his career, he knows he must make more chances count. His fall series once again showed his consistency as he posted three top-25 finishes from as many starts to turn into the new year at 42nd in the FedExCup. As has been t...

OVERVIEW Potential New Year’s resolutions for Patrick Cantlay: Find a way to beat Bryson DeChambeau, and find a way to make it to the 2019 Presidents Cup in Melbourne, Australia, where Cantlay would play for the U.S. in a major international team competition for the first time as a pro. The only surprise is that it hasn’t happened yet. His 60 at the 2011 Travelers Championship promised stardom, his career was nearly derailed by a back injury, and now he’s returned to the upper echelon in style. Cantlay finished a sporty runner-up to DeChambeau in his first PGA TOUR title defense at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in November. If the faces looked familiar in Las Vegas, they should have. Five months earlier, Cantlay led going into the back nine of the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide  but suffered a late bogey to finish fourth. DeChambeau won in a playoff over Byeong Hun An and Kyle Stanley. When you list the top 20-somethings on TOUR, it’s easy to forget...

Golfers are omitted if they recently haven’t competed in majors for which they are eligible (e.g. PGA Championship=Mark Brooks; Open Championship=Ben Curtis, Justin Leonard). 1 = Masters 2 = PGA Championship 3 = U.S. Open 4 = Open Championship MC = WGC-Mexico Championship TPC = THE PLAYERS Championship MP = WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play SJI = WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational Recent Additions 1 - none 2 - none 3 - none 4 - Romain Langasque; Charl Schwartzel; Oliver Wilson MC - none TPC - none SJI - none Golfer Qualified Byeong Hun An TPC Abraham Ancer 4, TPC Kiradech Aphirbarnrat 4, MC Ryan Armour TPC Rich Beem 2 Isidro Benitez 4 Daniel Berger 2, 3, TPC Lucas Bjerregaard 4, MC, SJI Alexander Bj?rk 4, MC Ryan Blaum TPC Devon Bling 1, 3 (must remain an amateur to compete in both) Keegan Bradley 1, 2, 3, 4, MC, TPC, SJI Scott Brown TPC Bronson Burgoon TPC ?ngel Cabrera 1 Rafa Cabrera Bello 2, 4, TPC Mark Calcavecchia 4 Jorge Campil...

There are 21 rookies on the PGA TOUR in 2018-19. This page provides a subjective ranking updated weekly. The Rookie of the Year is voted by PGA TOUR members who make at least 15 starts. As the PGA TOUR completed its second of six weeks off for the holiday hiatus, Sungjae Im and Cameron Davis stayed busy in familiar climes. Im was one of 30 qualifiers at the Golf Nippon Series JT Cup. While he’s a former Rookie of the Year on the Japan Golf Tour, he hasn’t competed on the circuit since last year’s JT Cup. He gained entry this year via his position inside the top 100 of the Official World Golf Ranking on Nov. 25. (He sat 99th.) So, he was making his JGT season debut in what was the 2018 season finale. With an aggregate of 1-under 279 at Tokyo Yomiuri Country Club, Im finished in a four-way tie for 15th place, seven strokes off the pace of champion Satoshi Kodaira, who survived a three-way playoff that included former PGA TOUR member Ryo Ishikawa. Kodaira was a finalist for the 20...