TOUR Championship Day 2

The TOUR Championship has not been kind to its participants this year. With 2nd Round scores ranging from -3 to +4, it was definitely a day to forget for most players.

The pairings for today went as follows:

• William McGirt – Kevin Na
• Phil Mickelson – Jimmy Walker
• Sean O’Hair – Daniel Berger
• Patrick Reed – Charl Schwartzel
• Emiliano Grillo – Russell Knox
• J.B. Holmes – Roberto Castro
• Brandt Snedeker – Jason Dufner
• Bubba Watson – Gary Woodland
• Jhonattan Vegas – Ryan Moore
• Matt Kuchar – Adam Scott
• Paul Casey – Rory McIlroy
• Justin Thomas – Jordan Spieth
• Si Woo Kim – Jason Day
• Dustin Johnson – Kevin Kisner
• Hideki Matsuyama – Kevin Chappell

The story of the day was Jason Day withdrawing from the tournament. After the 8th Hole he shook hands with Si Woo Kim (which is what you do once play is finished) I knew his something was wrong and his day was finished. We received comment from Day’s management:

Jason has a strained ligament in his lower right back with muscle spasm. He withdrew as a precautionary measure. Jason should be fine with some rest after a long break in the offseason.”

This is the second consecutive event in which Jason Day has been forced to WD after also withdrawing during the final round of the BMW Championship. Day will receive last-place/unofficial money and no FedExCup points for the TOUR Championship.

Phil Mickelson finished +2 on the day for a total score of +6 (He’s currently tied for 25th). He was asked why he felt the course was so difficult:

Well, the rough is the hardest we’ve played in years. But the bunkers are difficult. If you play perfect golf, like you hit the fairway, you hit the green, it’s in pristine shape, you can shoot low scores, reasonable scores, but you can’t play — you can’t miss it here. There’s no recovery.”

Rory McIlroy shot even today for a total of -2 and is tied for 5th. He was happy with how he’s putted the past few days but needs to work on his iron play. “I need to go and figure out — I’ve sort of got it going both ways with the irons.” When asked about the difficulty of the course he said, “It’s been difficult. I feel like I’ve left a lot of shots out there this week. I’m still up there in terms of position, six shots off the leader (Dustin Johnson), but I feel like I can go out there and shoot a good one tomorrow and at least give myself a chance for Sunday.”

Ryan Moore finished the day -2 with a -2 total score and is also tied for 5th. He commented on his steady day:

It was just a good, steady day. Missed a lot of fairways, which for me is not the norm, but I was able to make a lot of good solid pars from those positions. Really good, solid short putting, I would call it, eight feet in. Felt great. Made a lot of good par savers and was able to finally roll in a decent birdie chance there on 17. So it was kind of nice to finish the day off.”

The top-five players in the FedExCup standings entering the TOUR Championship control their own destiny and will win the FedExCup title should they go on to victory at East Lake.

FEC            Name                           Position                 FedExCup Projection

1                Dustin Johnson             1                                        1

2                Patrick Reed                 T19                                     2

3                Adam Scott                  T11                                     3

4                Jason Day                    WD                                     7

5                Paul Casey                   T5                                       4

A points reset took place following the BMW Championship giving all 30 players in the field at the TOUR Championship a mathematical chance to win the FedExCup.

-Jon J.

Photo: Hakim Wright