The PGA TOUR and Vijay Singh are pleased to announce that we have resolved our prior dispute. The settlement reflects our mutual commitment to look to the future as we put this matter behind us. The PGA TOUR fully supports Vijay as he continues to be a true champion on the PGA TOUR and PGA TOUR Champions. The PGA TOUR recognizes that Vijay is one of the hardest working golfers ever to play the game, and does not believe that he intended to gain an unfair advantage over his fellow competitors in this matter. Vijay fully supports the PGA TOUR’s Anti-Doping Program and all efforts to protect the integrity of the game that he loves so much. The parties will make no statement concerning the settlement terms resolving this matter.

Click here to read the full article…

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Cameron Champ has quickly become known for more than his tee shots.   The 23-year-old rookie started the season by appearing on the cover of a golf magazine that was peddling the promise of longer drives. Then he started earning attention for his scores.   No one appeared on leaderboards more often than Champ this fall. He sat inside the top 10 after 13 of the last 16 rounds. He was 64 under par over that stretch.   He will start the New Year ranked sixth in the FedExCup. He is tied with Gary Woodland for the most top-10s this season (3).   At the start of the season, Champ would’ve considered it a success if he made all the cuts. He did much more than that. He won the Sanderson Farms Championship, finished T10 at the Mayakoba Golf Classic and closed the fall with a sixth-place finish at The RSM Classic.   His worst finish in five fall starts was a T28 at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, where he was in sixth place entering the final round.   He was most proud of the consistency he showed this fall.   Fifteen of his last 17 rounds were in the 60s. Eleven of them were 68 or lower, including a second-round 62 at Mayakoba. He leads the TOUR in birdies (117) and is second in birdie average (5.9 per round).   He had a chance to win The RSM Classic on Sunday despite struggling with his ball-striking.   “My putter really saved me this week. It’s been a good balance. Some weeks, my ball-striking has been great and I really haven’t putted well. And vice versa,� he said.   Champ excelled with both the longest and shortest clubs in his bag. He leads the TOUR in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee (+1.48 per round) and could contend for the greatest single-season performance in that metric. But he also ranked 28th in Strokes Gained: Putting (+0.83 per round) this fall.   It’s a very small sample, but no player has ever combined such skill on the tee and off the greens. Even if Champ’s putting regresses as the season progresses, he could become the first player to average more than 1 stroke gained per round off the tee and 0.3 per round on the greens.   The advantage that his distance alone gives him should not be understated, though.   Only twice in the FedExCup era has the leader in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee failed to qualify for the TOUR Championship. Only once has the leader in that statistic failed to win.   The leader in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee has an average FedExCup ranking of 14 and averages 1.7 wins per season.   Bubba Watson is the current record-holder for single-season performance in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee. He averaged 1.49 strokes gained per round in 2012, the year he won his first Masters.   There have been only eight seasons in which a player has averaged more than 1 stroke gained per round off the tee. Four players – Dustin Johnson (2016, ’17), Rory McIlroy (2012, ’14, ’16), Watson (’12, ’15) and Sergio Garcia (2005) – have achieved that feat.    Players who surpassed 1 stroke gained per round off the tee averaged 2.7 wins per season and a ranking of 4.3 in the FedExCup.   Last season, eight of the top 10 in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee qualified for the TOUR Championship, as did 13 of the top 20 in that metric.   Let that sink in for a second. Nearly half of the players who qualified for the season finale were in the top 20 of Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee when they arrived at East Lake.   Champ leads the PGA TOUR in driving distance (328.2 yards) while hitting 62 percent of his fairways. His driving accuracy almost equals the TOUR average this season (63 percent).   Mark Broadie, the inventor of the Strokes Gained statistics, calls Champ’s combination of distance and accuracy “remarkable.�   “The Strokes Gained that he loses from reduced accuracy is way more than compensated by his extra distance,� Broadie said.   Broadie has calculated that it takes approximately 3.4 strokes gained per round to win a PGA TOUR event. Champ covers nearly half of that with his tee shots alone. This fall, he gained nearly 2.4 strokes per round with his driving and putting.   “There are a lot of ways to get another 1 stroke per round to reach 3.4 per round,� Broadie said. “A hot putter, sinking one more putt per round, an approach shot or 2 to 4 feet instead of 14 feet, etc.�   Champ may not be able to keep up this unprecedented pace, but perhaps his putter should be mentioned alongside that other club that he is known for.

Click here to read the full article…

It has been a successful month for several players scheduled to compete in the 2018 QBE Shootout, including a double-celebration on Sunday at the LPGA’s CME Group Tour Championship and PGA TOUR’s RSM Classic. Lexi Thompson won the LPGA’s season-ending event in Naples by four strokes on Sunday marking the sixth consecutive year that Thompson has won at least once, extending the longest such active streak on the LPGA. With the win, Thompson climbs to #5 in the world. In Sea Island, Georgia, Charles Howell III won for the first time in 11 years with a playoff victory and moved to No. 1 in the FedExCup standings. Both are scheduled to compete in the QBE Shootout in two weeks—Thompson with Tony Finau and Howell with Luke List. PGA TOUR rookie Cameron Champ will replace Kevin Chappell, who had to withdraw due to injury. Champ’s season is off to a strong start with a win at the Sanderson Farms Championship at the end of October, a T10 at the Mayakoba Golf Classic and a 6th place finish at the RSM Classic on Sunday. Champ, already being mentioned as the top candidate for Rookie of the Year on the PGA TOUR, will be paired with Kevin Kisner. The week after Champ won, Bryson DeChambeau earned his fourth TOUR victory in 2018 with a win at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. Ranked #5 in the world, he will be paired with Kevin Na in a couple weeks. With these four individual titles, QBE Shootout participants have dominated the golf calendar on the PGA TOUR and LPGA as of late. Tickets are currently on sale for the 30th anniversary of the QBE Shootout which will be held December 5 – 9 at Tiburon Golf Club at The Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort, Naples. Prices start at $30 for grounds tickets. Popular hospitality venues, the Naples Beach Brew House and Greg Norman Estates Shark Club are available for $90 and $300, respectively.

Click here to read the full article…