Tour Championship, first-round leaderboard
-13 P Cantlay (US); -11 J Rahm (Spa); -8 B DeChambeau (US), H English (US); -7 V Hovland (Nor), C Smith (Aus), J Thomas (US)
Selected: -6 T Finau (US); -5 J Spieth (US), B Koepka (US), D Johnson (US); -4 R McIlroy (NI); -3 C Morikawa (US); -2 S Garcia (Spa); +6 H Matsuyama (Jpn)

Patrick Cantlay retained his two-shot advantage after the first round of the Tour Championship at East Lake – the PGA Tour’s season-ending event which boasts a $15m prize for the winner.

The American, who started on 10 under after his victory in last week’s BMW Championship, hit a three-under-par 67.

World number one Jon Rahm shot a 65 to improve from six under to 11 under.

Bryson DeChambeau birdied the last to shoot 69 and join Harris English, who had a hole-in-one, on eight under.

English followed his ace on the par-three 15th in Atlanta with birdies on the 16th and 17th to leap up the leaderboard with a 66.
Norway’s Viktor Hovland also shot a 66 to join Australia’s Cameron Smith and America’s Justin Thomas on seven under.

Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy started the week on two under par and a 68 saw him finish on four under.

Tony Finau, who started the tournament in second place on eight under, was the only player in the top 20 to shoot over par and his 72 dropped him to six under.

Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama props up the leaderboard on six over par after shooting a 77.

The final tournament in the Fedex Cup series is limited to the top 30 players after a whittling down process in the previous two events – the Northern Trust and BMW Championship – and each player was given a starting score dependant on where they sit in the rankings from 10 under for the leader, down to level par.

Phil Mickelson has been a part of every Ryder Cup since 1995. That streak will continue this fall at Whistling Straits. Just in a different capacity.

United States captain Steve Stricker announced Wednesday that Mickelson and Fred Couples have been added to the team as vice captains.
“I’ve been staying in close contact with both Freddie and Phil, talking about all things Ryder Cup, for a while now,” said Captain Steve Stricker. “They provide honest and impactful feedback, and both have such a passion for the Ryder Cup. I’m honored that they were willing to join our Team and help put us in the best position to win in a few weeks at Whistling Straits.”

Mickelson has made 12 Ryder Cup appearances and played in 47 matches in his career, both team highs for the American side. After becoming the oldest major championship winner in history with his triumph at the PGA Championship, Mickelson was very much in the running for a captain’s pick for the red, white and blue. But while Mickelson’s Wanamaker, coupled with his Ryder Cup experience, made him a viable candidate, his play dropped following his Kiawah triumph, posting just one finish inside the top 60 in eight tour starts since the PGA. Mickelson acknowledged at last week’s BMW Championship that he would still love to be a part of the American club even if he couldn’t participate as a player.

As for Couples, his participation is not a surprise; Patrick Cantlay accidentally broke the news following his win at Caves Valley Sunday night. Couples played in five Ryder Cups in his career, and served as a vice captain to Davis Love III at the 2012 match. Mickelson and Couples join Davis Love III, Jim Furyk and Zach Johnson as Stricker’s vice captains.
Initial thoughts on Phil as an assistant?

The true impact an assistant captain has is impossible to quantify, but it’s hard to argue that Phil will be a net negative for the U.S. side. If there are concerns about Stricker being too gentle and nice, Phil seems like a strong voice who can deliver a message that might need to be forcefully communicated. Also, not to suggest the rest of the captain’s room is hitting pop-ups to second base at this point, but Phil does play a game—in terms of speed and power—that most closely resembles all the talent up and down the roster. He plays the most with all these guys whether it’s practice rounds, games at home, and week-to-week on tour. That could be a real asset in the room when it comes to understanding and collaborating with the players on course strategy. – Brendan Porath

Oh man, are they actually going to give Phil a walkie-talkie? We can only imagine the chatter that will ensue. Phil will need his own channel. We joke, of course, because this is the perfect solution for the Mickelson conundrum. Phil wasn’t playing well enough to make team, but he was going to be sorely missed in the team room. Now Stricker doesn’t have to make the tough call, and he gets Phil and all of his inspiration in the ping-pong tournaments. Other thing is: This is Phil’s captain-in-waiting moment, but let’s hope that he doesn’t overwhelm the real chief. We can hear it now, “Hey Strick, I got this great idea …” Over the walkie-talkie, no less. – Tod Leonard

My initial reaction is I’m impressed by Phil Mickelson, golf’s ultimate showman, turning down the opportunity to play for probably one final time in one of the game’s biggest showcases. As the PGA champ, he certainly has a case to make the squad, but I think even he acknowledges that his inconsistent play—and notoriously wild driving—is not the best option for Steve Stricker’s squad. After playing in a remarkable 12 straight Ryder Cups, though, he will certainly be missed. – Alex Myers

Can I say sadness? Phil Mickelson has been on every single Ryder Cup team since 1995. That’s 12 in a row. It’s one of the more underrated stats in our sport, and today feels like the end of an era. Then I remember he literally won a major this year, so who the hell knows. – Daniel Rapaport

Which captain’s pick candidate benefits most from Phil no longer in the running?

Webb Simpson. He’s not the sexiest pick, but it’s likely Stricker will use one of his six spots on a veteran presence. Besides, dude can still play: Webb was ninth among Americans in Data Golf’s true strokes gained over the last six months, and he’s one of the best short-game players on the U.S. side (10th in SG/around-the-green and 22nd in SG/putting). That is a recipe for a viable fourball partner and exactly the profile needed for foursomes. – Joel Beall

The answer here has to be Scottie Scheffler, who literally had zero chance of making it if Phil swiped one of the captain’s picks. Now Scheffler’s chances have at least entered the “slim” category, which he can improve upon with a strong week at East Lake, where he tied for fifth a year ago. – Chris Powers

Patrick Reed seems like an obvious choice here but I think Daniel Berger most benefits from Phil now being off the board. His stat profile is absolutely indicative of someone who should be on the team. He should be there. But at 12th in points, he felt the most in danger of someone like Phil sliding in to take a spot. He still may be in danger from others, but Phil is one less wild card to worry about now. – BP

If Phil gets a vote, does he lean toward the older candidates (Simpson, Kevin Na) because he knows them better? Or does he lobby the captain for somebody younger because taking those guys under his wing is his thing. I can see Phil pushing for somebody like Scheffler, who reminds me of a young Keegan Bradley and the fun he and Mickelson had at Medinah. – TL

After making the Tour Championship on the number, Patrick Reed appears set to play in the season finale.

Reed has been out for the past three weeks, first because of a sprained ankle and then with double pneumonia that required a stay in the hospital. Reed told Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis last week that he was at home and taking his recovery “day by day.”
On Tuesday, Reed posted on social media that he was making the road trip to Atlanta to tee it up in the final event of the season. At No. 30 in the FedExCup standings, he will begin the Tour Championship at even par, 10 shots off the lead.

“Excited to get back out there and give it my best shot this week!” he tweeted.

Besides the $15 million first-place prize, there is plenty of motivation for Reed to compete this week. This is the final week for prospective players to impress U.S. Ryder Cup captain Steve Stricker before he makes his six wildcard selections next Wednesday, after the Tour Championship. Reed was close to the top-6 bubble heading into the final weeks of qualifying, but three straight withdrawals bumped him down to No. 11 in the standings. Reed has been a part of every U.S. cup team since 2014.

Bryson DeChambeau confronts golf fan after his “Brooksie” comment at the BMW Championship on the PGA Tour.
Bryson DeChambeau reportedly “spun around in a fit of rage” and told a golf fan to “get the f*** out” following a comment that was made as he trudged off the back of the 18th green in the final round of the BMW Championship on Sunday.

DeChambeau agonisingly saw his birdie attempt slip past the hole from inside of 10 feet on the sixth extra hole as his US compatriot Patrick Cantlay clinched his fifth PGA Tour title to move to the top of the FedEx Cup standings.
As DeChambeau walked off the back of the 18th green, he overheard a fan yelling “Nice job, Brooksie!” (in reference to DeChambeau’s ongoing spat with Brooks Koepka).
DeChambeau is then said to have motioned for a police officer to confront the fan, before he continued his climb up the hill to the clubhouse.

To DeChambeau’s credit, he did hand his iconic cap to an ecstatic young fan.
DeChambeau, who is bidding to win the FedEx Cup for the first time in his career, will start this week’s season finale at the Tour Championship on 7-under par and three shots behind Cantlay.

Justin Thomas this week offered an update on the health of Tiger Woods, saying the 15-time major champion is “doing well, especially all things considered.”

On a recent appearance on the No Laying Up podcast, Thomas said that he visits his fellow South Floridian a few times a week when he’s not on the road. Woods has been seen in public only a handful of times since his car accident in February that left him with serious injuries to his right leg. There have been no substantive updates on his condition over the past several months, other than a few grainy videos that show him walking without support at one of his son Charlie’s junior tournaments.

When asked about a potential return to competition, Thomas said: “I don’t know. I know that he’s going to try. I don’t see him ever playing if he can’t play well. He doesn’t strike me as a guy that’s going to play at home shooting a bunch of 75s and 76s and he’s like, ‘All right, I’m gonna go give Augusta a try this year.’ That’s just not gonna be him.

“I think he knows that there’s a pretty good chance that might be the last chance he really ever had before that of kinda making another run. But at the same time, I know how determined he is. I know he’s gonna want to at least try to give something again. Obviously, I hope he does. But at the same time, as long as he can be a normal dad again, that’s the No. 1 priority again and the rest is a bonus.”

Thomas and Woods have become close friends over the past few years, playing many practice rounds together and even partnering at the 2019 Presidents Cup. Thomas was one of the first players interviewed after Woods’ crash, as he fought back tears while in a news conference at Concession.

Thomas said that in his interactions this year with Woods, he is “doing well, all things considered.

“It’s groundhog day – every day is exactly the same for him,” he said. “He’s able to be a dad again, which is most important. He’s still his sarcastic a-hole self, so nothing’s really changed there. So I’m glad to see he’s as chipper as always.”

It’s unclear when Woods might next make a public appearance. The tournament he hosts, the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, is scheduled for Dec. 2-5.

Eight months after splitting with longtime swing coach Michael Bannon to work with Pete Cowen, Rory McIlroy has reversed course and gone back to the man who has taught him since he was a junior.

“Yes, Michael [Bannon] and I are back working together,” McIlroy told Golfweek. “I’ve always had a relationship with Pete and I’ll ask for his input if I feel I need it. But now it’s Michael and me.”

Bannon, who is based in Northern Ireland, was unable to travel through the pandemic and McIlroy became frustrated with his game and his swing. At The Players Championship in March, he began working with Cowen and there was some success.

In May, he won the Wells Fargo Championship for the third time and he won his only start in the fall at October’s CJ Cup, but there have also been issues. McIlroy struggled at the Ryder Cup, where he sat out a team session for the first time in his career and failed to win a point until Sunday’s single’s session. He also dropped to 15th in the world ranking.

“Some good. Some bad,” McIlroy said at the Tour Championship when asked to characterize his season. “It started OK. Well, actually, didn’t. I got some decent results at the start of the year but it never felt really comfortable.”

McIlroy’s next start will be the DP World Championship later this month on the European circuit followed by the Hero World Challenge in December to close out his year.

The collective will of golf’s establishment to swat aside challenges by Saudi Arabia means the European Tour will be renamed from the start of next year. DP World, the Dubai-based logistics company, will take on title sponsorship of the tour, with prize funds to increase as a direct result. The European Tour, formed in 1972, will keep its name as an overarching corporate entity only.

Saudi Arabia’s manoeuvres in the professional game have met staunch resistance from the European and PGA Tours, who are now in strategic alliance. Greg Norman was recently confirmed as the public face of a Saudi-based series of 10 events on the Asian Tour. The Saudis have long-held aspirations of a golf super league but, as yet, have no formal buy-in from leading players.

Greg Norman
Greg Norman to head up new $200m Saudi-backed series on Asian Tour
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The DP World Tour will lead to prize funds – including major championships and World Golf Championships – totaling more than $200m (£147m) for the first time. Tournaments solely sanctioned by the DP World Tour must have a minimum purse of $2m.

Next year will feature a minimum of 47 tournaments in 27 different countries, including new events in the United Arab Emirates, Japan, South Africa and Belgium. Neither the European Tour nor DP World would detail the length of their partnership or its total monetary value but it is understood the latter runs into hundreds of millions of dollars.

“This announcement is momentous and will herald a new era in global golf,” said Keith Pelley, the European Tour’s chief executive. “When I joined [in 2016] I told the board I felt the name of the tour was a misnomer and did not reflect our brand. We are definitely a world tour.

“The DP World Tour is a natural evolution of our decade-long partnership, and the presence of ‘world’ in our new title better reflects our global reach. We will always remember our heritage and those who have gone before us who helped us shape our tour but we also rejoice in our global footprint.”

Pelley refused to reference directly the Saudi/Asian Tour alliance. However, this will inevitably be viewed as the further closing of ranks by the PGA and European Tours.

Rory McIlroy, speaking via video conference to a media event held in Dubai, branded the deal “great news for global golf”. The four-times major winner has previously spoken out against Saudi plans for his sport.

Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour’s commissioner, said: “I’ve said before that our respective tours are positioned to grow – together – over the next 10 years faster than we ever have at any point in our existence and today’s announcement is another point of proof in those efforts.”

Japanese golfer Hiroshi Iwata shot a 7-under 63 Thursday to take the first-round lead at the PGA Tour’s Zozo Championship.

Iwata had a one-stroke lead over Joaquin Niemann and 2021 Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama on the par-70, 7,041-yard Narashino Country Club course.

Defending champion Patrick Cantlay is taking the rest of the year off and is not playing in what has turned out to be the only PGA tournament on the Asia swing. Only three of the top 20 in the world are playing in Chiba.

Tokyo Olympics gold medal winner Xander Schauffele shot 70, as did Rickie Fowler, who is playing on a sponsor’s exemption for the second straight year.

British Open champion Collin Morikawa shot 71.

Tiger Woods won his 82nd career PGA Tour title at Narashino in 2019.

Rahm’s opening-round 78 equals the second-worst of his professional career, with his highest being a third-round 82 at The Players in 2017; world No 1 is 11 shots behind early pacesetter Julien Guerrier.

The world No 1, the pre-tournament favorite at Real Club Valderrama, failed to register a single birdie and found just four fairways on the tee as he struggled to a disappointing seven-over 78.

Rahm carded five bogeys and one double-bogey to find himself 11 strokes behind early pacesetter Julien Guerrier, with his opening-day total his highest since he shot a 78 during the second round of The Open in 2018.

Beginning on the back nine alongside Ryder Cup team-mate Matt Fitzpatrick and last week’s Acciona Open de Espana winner Rafa Cabrera Bello, Rahm bogeyed his opening hole and missed a six-foot birdie chance at the par-five next.

Rahm made back-to-back bogeys from the 12th and slipped to four over when he failed to get up and down from a greenside bunker at the par-three 15th, with a three-putt double-bogey at the 18th seeing him limp to the turn in 42.

The US Open champion holed a 10-footer to save par at the third and converted from a similar distance to avoid dropping a shot at the par-five next, having found the water with his approach, only for him to bogey the seventh to fall further down the leaderboard.

Guerrier mixed six birdies with two bogeys in testing conditions to set the clubhouse target, with Cabrera Bello a shot off the pace after a three-under 68 and just a handful of players under par on the opening day.
“It was really complicated today,” Guerrier said. “The wind was growing stronger on the back nine, I think it’s going to stay like that all day. I had two bogeys on the score card, very few, and six birdies. It’s good to have six birdies in these conditions.”

Fitzpatrick carded a level-par 71 and John Catlin began his title defense with a two-over 73 alongside Robert MacIntyre, while Victor Perez joined Rahm in posting an opening-round 78.

The Las Vegas swing begins this week as the PGA Tour starts to pick up the pace on the schedule
The Sanderson Farms Championship provided an exciting finish last weekend, but now the pace begins to pick up on the PGA Tour with a mini-Vegas swing beginning with this week’s Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. This year’s event will be featuring several stars, including multiple Ryder Cup participants.

Let’s take a closer look at this week’s contest with odds provided via Caesars Sportsbook.

Event information
Event: Shriners Hospitals for Children Open | Dates: Oct. 7-10
Location: TPC at Summerlin — Las Vegas, Nevada
Par: 71 | Purse: $7 million

Three things to know

1. Which Brooks? Brooks Koepka will be one of the primary draws this week as he makes his 2021-22 PGA Tour season debut. As Ben Coley pointed out in his excellent preview, Koepka is prone to wild swings in finishes. Koepka has played 16 tournaments worldwide in 2021, and he’s missed the cut, withdrawn or finished in the top six in 12 of them. That’s a staggering number, and coming off a strong performance at the Ryder Cup, it makes him an interesting follow this week.

2. Webb rebound: I’m intrigued by Webb Simpson’s performance this week. He’s had a down 2021 — for him — and at No. 24 in the world right now could be headed for his worst year-end ranking in four years. Still, he gets a fresh start to the season on a course he’s owned over the years — third in strokes gained over the last 10 years — and one that does not require immense length off the tee. He’s finished in the top 10 at this tournament in each of the last four years.

3. New expectations: Scottie Scheffler will play his first tournament since slaying the No. 1 player in the world, Jon Rahm, at Whistling Straits a few weeks ago. He’s also No. 1 of anyone in this field in strokes gained from tee to green over his last 20 rounds played. These successes bring the weight of expectation. I’m not as concerned as most with victories, but this will be his 64th career PGA Tour start, and chatter that he needs to start stacking victories will get louder throughout this season.

Grading the field
It’s a terrific field, especially for this time of the year and at this point in the season. Seven of the top 20 in the world and 27 (!) of the top 50 will tee it up this week. Louis Oosthuizen is the highest-ranked golfer in the field, and he’s joined by Ryder Cuppers Koepka, Harris English, Viktor Hovland, Scheffler and Paul Casey, all of whom are ranked in the top 25 in the world. Grade: A-