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PGA Tour: Byron Nelson Classic Final Round Preview

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AT&T Byron Nelson | Final Round

MCKINNEY, TEXAS – In the 30th of 44 events in the 2022-23 PGA Tour regular season, Austin Eckroat, Zecheng Dou and Texan Ryan Palmershare the 54-hole lead at the AT&T Byron Nelson. Three players tied for the 54-hole lead is the most on Tour since the 2022 Valero Texas Open (four).

Note the 54-hole leads in individual stroke-play events on Tour: Eckroat (participating in first), Dou (participating in first) and Palmer (1-for-5 to date)

All three 54-hole leaders currently stand outside No. 135 in the FedExCup standings

Three players T-4 or better seek their first PGA Tour victory (Eckroat, Dou, Vincent Norrman).

Texas native Palmer seeks his fifth Tour victory and first since the 2019 Zurich Classic of New Orleans (with partner Jon Rahm).

Following an even-par 71, second-round leader and Dallas resident Scottie Scheffler trails by two. With a win, Scheffler would return to No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking.

Happy Mothers Day

AT&T Byron Nelson Leaderboard | After 54 Holes

Austin Eckroat 69 65 63 197 (-16)

Zecheng Dou 63 70 64 197 (-16)

Ryan Palmer 64 65 68 197 (-16)

Vincent Norrman 68 66 65 199 (-14)

Jason Day 64 69 66 199 (-14)

Si Woo Kim 65 66 68 199 (-14)

Scottie Scheffler 64 64 71 199 (-14)

Full Leaderboard (link)

Wells Fargo Championship | Recap

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By TERRY LYONS

CHARLOTTE – Wyndham Clark picked-up his first PGA Tour victory in his 134th start at the age of 29 years, 4 months, 28 days. He won with the lowest 72-hole score (265) in Wells Fargo Championship history. Clark became the sixth player to record his first Tour victory at the Wells Fargo Championship and the eighth first-time winner of the season.

Seven-time PGA Tour winner Xander Schauffele finished runner-up for the 11th time in 152 starts on the Tour while Aussie Adam Scott (T-5) picked-up his first Top-10 finish since the 2022 BMW Championship (T-5).

As the top three players not already exempt, Wyndham Clark, Michael Kim and Denny McCarthy qualified for The Open Championship at Royal Liverpool.

Wells Fargo Championship | Final Leaderboard

1 Wyndham Clark 67 67 63 68 265 (-19)

2 Xander Schauffele 66 69 64 70 269 (-15)

T-3 Harris English 71 66 66 69 272 (-12)

T-3 Tyrrell Hatton 69 65 68 70 272 (-12)

T-5 Tommy Fleetwood 65 71 67 70 273 (-11)

T-5 Adam Scott 67 68 67 71 273 (-11)

Full Leaderboard: (link)

PGA Tour: Wells Fargo Final Round

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By TERRY LYONS

Wells Fargo Championship | Final Round

CHARLOTTE – In search of his first career PGA Tour victory, Wyndham Clark leads by two strokes over World No. 5 Xander Schauffele. Clark carded a season-low (63) for low round of the tournament.

Schauffele seeks his eighth career PGA Tour title but first of the season.

Adam Scott seeks first Top-10 finish since the 2022 BMW Championship. He is currently (T-3).

Tyrrell Hatton, Tommy Fleetwood (T-5) each strive to become a record fourth English winner on the Tour this season, and it could be a Coronation of their own.

Defending champion Max Homa (T-9) sits eight shots off the lead. No player has ever successfully defended this event.

Editor’s Note: A clerical glitch caused yesterday’s PGA Tour Brunch to be sent in the evening as opposed to the 6am hour. Apologies to our loyal readers.

Wells Fargo Championship | After 54 holes

1 Wyndham Clark 67 67 63 197 (-16)

2 Xander Schauffele 66 69 64 199 (-14)

T-3 Adam Scott 67 68 67 202 (-11)

T-3 Tyrrell Hatton 69 65 68 202 (-11)

T-5 Harris English 71 66 66 203 (-10)

T-5 Tommy Fleetwood 65 71 67 203 (-10)

T-5 Sungjae Im 69 66 68 203 (-10)

Full Leaderboard: (link)

PGA Tour: Fleetwood Leads Wells Fargo

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CHARLOTTE – Britain’s Tommy Fleetwood carded a 6-under 65 and holds a one-stroke lead after the first round of the Wells Fargo Championship. Fleetwood holds the 18-hole lead/co-lead for the third time on Tour and second time this season (The PLAYERS Championship).

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World No. 5 Xander Schauffele cards a 5-under 66, his lowest score in 13 rounds at the Wells Fargo Championship

K.H. Lee carded a first-round (66) at the Wells Fargo Championship for the third consecutive year (won the AT&T Byron Nelson Classic the following week in 2021 and 2022).

Three-time Wells Fargo Champion Rory McIlroy recorded a 3-under (68) on his 34th birthday and stands T-6.

Defending champion and two-time Wells Fargo Championship winner Max Homa opens with a 1-under 70 and stands T36

Wells Fargo Championship | After 18 holes

Tommy Fleetwood 65 (-6)

Kevin Streelman 66 (-5)

K.H. Lee 66 (-5)

Taylor Moore 66 (-5)

Xander Schauffele 66 (-5)

Ryan Palmer 66 (-5)

Full Leaderboard: (link)

Tour Turns to “The Green Mile”

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CHARLOTTE – The Wells Fargo Championship is the 29th event of the 2022-23 PGA TOUR Season and seventh designated event, featuring six of the Top 10 players in the Official World Golf Ranking (33 of top 50), 25 of the top 30 players in the FedEx Cup standings and 19 of the 23 players that have won on TOUR this season.

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Prize money is a lofty $20m with the winner getting $3.6 million from the bank’s coffers.

Two-time Wells Fargo Championship winner Max Homa (2019 at Quail Hollow Club, 2022 at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm) is one of four players with multiple titles this season (Fortinet Championship, Farmers Insurance Open) and is seeking to successfully defend a title for the second time this season (Fortinet Championship).

No player has ever successfully defended a title at the Wells Fargo Championship.

Five players successfully defended a title during the 2021-22 season, the most since 2007 (5), and Homa is one of three that have done so this season (Rory McIlroy/The CJ CUP in South Carolina, Scottie Scheffler/WM Phoenix Open).

Three-time Wells Fargo Championship winner Rory McIlroy, the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 3 in the Official World Golf Ranking, will be making his 12th start at the event. The Wells Fargo Championship is one of six TOUR events at which McIlroy has collected multiple victories and the first that he won three or more times.

Quail Hollow Club’s 16th, 17th and 18th holes make up the most difficult three-hole finish on Tour, known as the Green Mile. Among non-major courses that have been played in at least five seasons since 2003, “The Green Mile” ranks as the toughest finishing three holes (+0.904 on average).

Max Homa is one of 18 players in the field that competed in the 2022 Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow Club. Those items included:

  • International Team: Corey Conners (Canada), Cam Davis (Australia), Sungjae Im (South Korea), Si Woo Kim (South Korea), Tom Kim (South Korea), K.H. Lee (South Korea), Taylor Pendrith (Canada), Adam Scott (Australia)
  • United States: Sam Burns, Patrick Cantlay, Tony Finau, Max Homa, Collin Morikawa, Xander Schauffele, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Cameron Young

Wells Fargo | Tournament Facts

COURSE: Quail Hollow, Charlotte, North Carolina

YARDS/PAR: 7,538 yards/Par 71

ARCHITECT: George Cobb

PRIZE Money/First Place Winnings: $20,000,000/$3,600,000

DEFENDING CHAMPION: Max Homa

FEDEx CUP Points to Winner: 500

SOCIAL MEDIA: #PGATour #FedExCup @WellsFargoGolf

Finau Takes Mexico Open at Vidanta

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The Finau Family

By TERRY LYONS

VALLARTA, México – PGA Tour veteran Tony Finau won his sixth PGA Tour title and fourth in his last 18 starts. He earned multiple victories in back-to-back seasons for the first time in his career.

World No. 1 and FedEx Cup leader Jon Rahm posted his ninth career runner-up finish and, in doing so, set the new record for most official money earned in a single PGA Tour season.

Last year’s 2022 Mexico Open at Vidanta runner-up Brandon Wu finished solo third marking fact all three who finished inside the top three at the 2022 Mexico Open at Vidanta did so again this year.

Mexico Open | Final Leaderboard

Tony Finau 65-64-65-66—260 (-24)

Jon Rahm 67-68-61-67—263 (-21)

Brandon Wu 66-64-67-68—265 (-19)

Akshay Bhatia 68-65-63-70—266 (-18)

Full Leaderboard (link)

Finau, Rahm Battling It Out

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By TERRY LYONS

VALLARTA, México – PGA Tour veteran Tony Finau is seeking his sixth title and fourth since finishing runner-up at the 2022 Mexico Open at Vidanta. Finau’s score of 18-under (194) set the 54-hole tournament record.

Meanwhile, World No. 1 and FedEx Cup leader Jon Rahm tied his career-low score on Tour with a bogey-free 10-under (61) to set the 18-hole tournament record.

Defending champion Rahm sits two strokes back in bid to successfully defend on Tour for the first time in seven tries.

Special temporary PGA Tour member Akshay Bhatia seeks to become the first Special Temporary Member to win on Tour since Tom Kim at the 2022 Wyndham Championship.

Brandon Wu (4th at -16) owns two runner-up results in 56 starts on the Tour, including T-2 at this event last year when he posted a final-round (63) to T-2 and at the 2023 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. With a win, Wu would become the eighth first-time winner on Tour this season.

Making his PGA Tour debut as a sponsor exemption, Raul Pereda (T17/-8) would qualify for this week’s Wells Fargo Championship with a T-10 or better.

Mexico Open | Leaderboard After 54 Holes

Tony Finau 65-64-65—194 (-19)

Jon Rahm 67-68-61—196 (-17)

Akshay Bhatia 68-65-63—196 (-17)

Brandon Wu 66-64-67—197 (-16)

Will Gordon 67-66-67—200 (-13)

Full Leaderboard (link)

Rahm Seeking to Defend in Mexico

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VALLARTA, México – World No. 1 and current FedEx Cup leader Jon Rahm returns to the Mexico Open at Vidanta after winning the inaugural event in 2022. Rahm has four wins this season, including the Masters, and with a win, would become the first player to win five times in a PGA Tour season since Justin Thomas in 2016-17.

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With $13,623,540 in Official Money this season, Rahm is the second player in PGA Tour history to earn $13 million or more in a single season. In 2021-22, Scottie Scheffler set the Tour record for most Official Money earned in a single season with $14,046,910.

Rahm has made six prior starts as the defending champion on Tour. He has not successfully defended a title, but led by six strokes after the third round of the 2021 Memorial Tournament presented by Workday before being forced to withdraw (COVID-19). Rahm has successfully defended one title on the DP World Tour, winning the Open de España in 2018 and 2019.

Tony Finau finished T-2 at the 2022 Mexico Open, which was his first Top-10 of that season. That runner-up result began a stretch of 15 starts for Finau that included three wins (3M Open, Rocket Mortgage Classic, Cadence Bank Houston Open) and three other top-five finishes. With his win at the Cadence Bank Houston Open, Finau is one of four players in the field that has won on Tour this season.

Mexico Open | Tournament Facts

COURSE: Vidanta Vallarta in Vallarta, México

ARCHITECT: Greg Norman (2015)

YARDS/PAR: 7,456 yards/Par 71

PRIZE Money/First Place Winnings: $7,700,000/$1,386,000

DEFENDING CHAMPION: Jon Rahm

FEDEx CUP Points to Winner: 500

SOCIAL MEDIA: #PGATour #FedExCup @MexicoOpenGolf 🇲🇽

PGA Tour: Preview of the Zurich Classic

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NEW ORLEANS – This is the sixth year that the Zurich Classic of New Orleans will be played with the two-man team format, the concept introduced in 2017 but interrupted/canceled in 2020 during pandemic. The tournament format calls for teams of two PGA Tour pros to play Four-ball in the first and third rounds, and Foursomes in the second and final rounds.

Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay will defend their title after winning in wire-to-wire fashion in 2022.

Five of the top six players on the final leaderboard at last week’s RBC Heritage are in the this week’s field, including RBC champion Matt Fitzpatrick, who is competing with his brother, Alex. The younger Fitzpatrick is making his second career start on Tour and first since the 2022 Valspar Championship (MC). The defending champions finished third (Cantlay) and fourth (Schauffele), while the two players that tied for fifth are also making the trip to New Orleans: Hayden Buckley is paired with 2022 Valero Texas Open champion J.J. Spaun and Sahith Theegala is teaming up with 2022 Korn Ferry Tour Player of the Year Justin Suh.

Zurich Classic | Tournament Facts

COURSE: TPC Louisiana, Avondale, LA

ARCHITECT: Pete Dye

YARDS/PAR: 7,425 yards/Par 72

PRIZE Money: $8,600,000

DEFENDING CHAMPIONS: Xander Schauffele/Patrick Cantlay

PAST RESULTS: (link)

FEDEx CUP Points to Winners: 400 to each player

SOCIAL MEDIA: #PGATour #FedExCup @Zurich_Classic

NOLA: Remember local time is Central time, one hour behind Eastern Daylight time.

 

Fitzpatrick Takes RBC in Playoff

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By TERRY LYONS

HILTON HEAD – Reigning U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick defeated defending champion Jordan Spieth in a multi-hole playoff to win the RBC Heritage at Harbor Town.

The playoff between Fitzpatrick and Spieth was the first on Tour featuring multiple players that had previously won a major championship since the 2020 Sentry Tournament of Champions (Justin Thomas* def. Patrick Reed* and Xander Schauffele). Spieth became the first defending champion to lose in a playoff since Schauffele at that same tournament.

Spieth now has 18 runner-up finishes on Tour since the start of the 2013 season, four more than any other player in that span.

Fitzpatrick is the third player from England to win on Tour this season, tying the most in a single season on record (1983-present).

RBC Heritage | Final Leaderboard

P-1 Matt Fitzpatrick 66 70 63 68 267 (-17) 1-0

P-2 Jordan Spieth 68 67 66 66 267 (-17) 5-4

3 Patrick Cantlay 69 65 66 68 268 (-16)

4 Xander Schauffele 67 66 70 66 269 (-15)

T-5 Sahith Theegala 70 68 67 65 270 (-14)

T-5 Hayden Buckley 69 68 66 67 270 (-14)