For as long as he can remember, Jay Seawell wanted to be a coach. Even when he was a little kid, he was glued to the TV when the pregame and postgame shows came on TV. By the time he was 15, Seawell was coaching his younger brother’s basketball and soccer teams at the YMCA. “I had my mother help me because I was only 15 and I had to have an adult there,â€� he recalls. Seawell’s first love was basketball but he wasn’t tall enough or talented enough to play the game at the highest level. But he did play golf at South Carolina and that’s when his career goals began to change. “My passion was always in helping people more than it was my own game,â€� Seawell explains. Six months on the mini-tours confirmed his decision – “they didn’t float my balloon,â€� he says. Besides, Seawell jokes, he’s probably the worst golfer in his family; brother David played two years on the Web.com Tour and one on the PGA TOUR, and both his father and brother Daniel are club professionals. “So I just decided to help other people who are really good,â€� Seawell says with a laugh. When an opportunity came to coach at what was then Anderson Junior College in 1991, Seawell took it. He became Augusta State’s head coach in 1998 and for the past 15 years has been at the helm of Alabama’s highly successful program. Under Seawell’s guidance, the Crimson Tide won national championships in 2013 and ’14, and finished runner-up in 2012. Five of his former players are on the PGA TOUR right now – Justin Thomas, Trey Mullinax, Tom Lovelady, Bud Cauley and Michael Thompson. Seawell says Thomas was probably 15 years old when he started recruiting the future world No. 1. He remembers getting a call from someone who said the teenager might be interested in attending Alabama and Seawell followed up immediately. After all, he says, Thomas could have gone anywhere in the country. He had the “buffet in front of him,â€� the coach explains. “The recruitment on him started from him, believe it or not, and that’s the way it happens a lot,â€� Seawell says. “There are a lot of players out there and so he just kind of sent word through a third party who called my phone. … “They said, ‘Hey, I think Justin Thomas would be somebody who’d be interested. They wanted me to know that if you’re interested they would like for me to watch him play.’ “So it kind of was initiated by Justin and his father and of course, when we first saw him we were like, ‘Wow, this is great.’â€� Jay Seawell coaches Justin Thomas during the future FedExCup champion’s time at Alabama.  Cauley’s recruitment was similar. Some people in Jacksonville, Florida told Seawell that he should go watch the 14-year-old play. He was the No. 1 amateur in the country when he committed to Alabama. “He’s slight in stature so he kind of underwhelmed you when you first saw him,â€� Seawell says. “But I don’t know if we’ve ever had anybody work harder at Alabama since I’ve been here.â€� Cauley, who has been sidelined by injuries suffered in a June automobile accident, went on to earn his TOUR card off the non-member money list – joining Gary Hallberg, Scott Verplank, Phil Mickelson, Justin Leonard, Tiger Woods and Ryan Moore as the only players to bypass Q-school. Players like Lovelady and Mullinax flew a little more under the radar but went on to form the nucleus of the 2013 and ‘14 NCAA title teams.  Mullinax, for example, grew up in Birmingham, Alabama so Seawell got to see him develop as a golfer. “I am proud of Trey because it was somebody who technically we took a chance on because he wasn’t maybe as polished as somebody like (Justin),â€� Seawell says. “But I was fortunate enough to see him enough to know that he had a tremendous upside and he’s now becoming, I think he’s a got a great future.â€� Seawell is also impressed with Lovelady’s quick ascent to the TOUR after just one season on the Web.com Tour. “I’m not surprised he made it,â€� he says. “Just how quickly he did it and how quickly he’s kind of adjusted and been able to keep that (status) — that’s been a pleasant surprise to a young man who I’m very proud of.â€� Thompson, on the other hand, was a proven commodity when he came to Alabama after two years at Tulane before the golf team was disbanded in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. He went on to earn All-America honors in 2008, a year after he finished runner-up in the U.S. Amateur. He earned his TOUR card three years later. Seawell admits to being a “rah-rah guy.â€� He says he tends to “holler on the phoneâ€� when a player calls him to commit to Alabama and his three kids look forward to celebratory dinners. “You work really hard and you identify people that you truly believe in and when they tell you, yes, they want to be part of what you’re doing that means they believe in you, too,â€� Seawell says. “I take that very seriously.â€� Thomas has a FedExCup and nine TOUR wins on his resume now, including the 2017 PGA, while Thompson has won once. Cauley, Mullinax and Lovelady are still looking for that first TOUR title. But as much as he enjoys seeing his players succeed, Seawell is most proud of the bond they all have off the golf course. “The network of our guys and the care they have for each other and their games that’s the most I’m proud of,â€� Seawell says. “Trying to help each other and the friendships — I get practice round pictures all the time with them, you know, playing together and things like that. “That’s, that’s the part I love. I’m proud of how good they play, but I’m more proud of that.â€� Jay Seawell celebrates on the putting green with former Alabama athlete and TOUR player Trey Mullinax.  And here are 18 things Seawell says you might not know about his Crimson Tide TOUR veterans. 1. Justin broke into our practice facility while he was being recruited. Well, maybe not broke in. He was 15 or 16 years old and he and his father were heading back to Louisville for Thanksgiving after a tournament. They didn’t break the glass or anything. But everything was closed because it was a holiday and so he and his father jumped the fence because they wanted to see the place. That was before I’d ever met him. 2. Bud grew up a Florida fan. After Bud signed with us, I went to a tournament and he drove up to the course with a UF license plate on the front of the car. I remember saying, Bud, do you think you can get rid of that now? And he’d went, ‘Oh my gosh, I forgot it was on there.’ 3. When I first started recruiting Justin, he always wore long pants. He was one of the few guys who did that. He said, I’m going to be like the professionals and wear long pants. But as he got older and it got hotter and hotter, he tended to find a way to put on a pair of shorts. 4. Michael loves to restore cars. He’s got a 1965 or ’66 Mustang that he’s taken apart and rebuilt probably two or three times just because he may have left a screw out or whatever it may have been. 5. Justin drove to school in a 3- or 4- or 5-year-old Honda Civic. But he’s kind of gone way past that. I texted him after he won his first tournament. I said, do you think you’re going to get rid of the Honda Civic now? He said, ‘Oh, yes.’ I think he has a tradition. If he wins I think he goes and looks at leasing a car. He may buy one, I don’t know. But I said, we’ve come a long way from that Honda Civic.   6. Tom has been Justin’s roommate for several years. Bud has lived with them, too. 7. Bud’s dad was a Navy diver. That’s where I know Bud gets his toughness from.   8. When we won the 2013 NCAA Championship at the Capital City Club in Atlanta, we had a van that had a TV and DVR and a DVD player in it. And they literally watched that Will Ferrell movie “Semi-Proâ€� every single day. It was about a 30-minute ride from the hotel to the golf course and so it just stayed on the whole way. Guess that inspired them to win the championship. 9. Justin is a great practical joker as y’all have seen on the TOUR. Our practice facility is the Jerry Pate Golf Center and we used to have a wild cat there that we befriended. His name was Jerry Cat and she really acted like a dog. That’s the only reason she was able to stick around out there because I am not a cat guy. Anyway, she’d lay down at the side while you hit balls or whatever. And for some reason Justin liked to chase her. She’d see him coming and he’d do it almost daily. 10. Trey actually got run over by a car while he was riding his bicycle to class. The driver of the car was texting and driving and didn’t see him. The pedal went into Trey’s leg, so he has about a 4- or 5-inch scar in his calf. He called one of his teammates, Bobby Wyatt, to come get him and Bobby asked him why he didn’t just walk. Trey goes, I don’t think I can. I’ve got my bike lodged into my leg. 11. Tom’s father passed away right before his senior year. He always puts his initials on his golf ball before he plays. 12. Bud? Man, that guy loves rap. We called him “Little Williamâ€� –  really not because of his size, just because it’s kind of a good rapper name. 13. Trey’s dad used to be a NASCAR off-track racer. That’s why Trey has a great NASCAR slang voice. 14. Tom was an incredibly talented baseball player when he was in high school. It may be his first love. He always had a ball and a couple of gloves in his car and at any moment while we were practicing some of the guys might be throwing the ball back and forth. 15. Trey finished second to Rory McIlroy in driving distance this year. But we had another guy on our team, Scott Strohmeyer, who literally may be the longest hitter in golf. So we had both of those guys in camp one year and we were doing a thing with Scott on Trackman and I said Scott, I need you to hit one hard. The ball speed on the Trackman was 199.7 and he flew it 345 in the air. And Trey goes, let me go now, Coach. And poor Trey, he only hit about 315, 320 and it was the most underwhelming 315 in the history of golf. That’s kind of who Trey is. He loves to compete. 16. Hurricane Katrina was a devastating natural disaster. But you know, there’s always good that eventually does come out of something like that and for us it was that Michael Thompson got to come to Tuscaloosa, which was good for a lot of people. 17. Michael also restored an old Ford truck, if I’m not mistaken, and cranked it and it caught on fire. Right there in the driveway. 18. While Justin was here, he developed an incredible friendship with our football coach, Nick Saban. Coach would come out in the spring and Justin tended to be one of the last guys to ever leave the facility. And so Coach would come out late in the afternoon just before the sunset and they’d chip together. Their friendship continues to grow. After Justin wins, Coach will call him and I think Justin actually called Nick maybe an hour or two after the national championship game. They’ve become pretty good friends.

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This is it! It’s hard to believe that the FedExCup Playoffs and the 2017-18 season concludes this week as East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta will determine the FedExCup champion. The top 30 players will all have a chance, mathematically, to claim the $10 million bonus with a victory. Only the top five in the standings are guaranteed to have their direct deposit filled with the bonus if they win Sunday afternoon. The other 25 will need to win AND have some help to be as fortunate. The event winner will take home $1.62 million, 2,000 FedExCup points and a trip to the Sentry Tournament of Champions regardless of their final position in the standings. All 30 players have already qualified for the first three major championships of next season and all invitational events. East Lake Golf Club, the home of Bobby Jones, has been the host for the final event since the inception of the FedExCup Playoffs in 2007. Tom Bendelow’s original design was redesigned by Donald Ross in its early years. Rees Jones has changed it twice most recently with renovations in 1994 and 2007 before flipping the nines before the 2016 event. This will be the second consecutive event on a Donald Ross footprint and third in the last five events (Sedgefield, Aronimink) on TOUR. TALES OF THE TAPE As the host to the final FedExCup event course history is an obvious factor this week but having plenty of it isn’t required. The three winners above were all 27 or younger when they claimed the final title of the TOUR season. Spieth’s 2015 victory was classic Jordan Spieth as his exquisite short game was on full display. His sixth win of the season saw him chase down veteran and 2013 champ Henrik Stenson. Trailing by five after 18 and three after 36, the wunderkind caught and passed the tournament and co-course-record holder by a shot entering the final round. As he watched the Ice Man melt with 72 in the final round, the 22-year old posted his fourth round in the 60s for a four-shot victory and the mantra of being the youngest-ever FedExCup champion. Scores were high as heavy rains and cool temperatures were featured in the final three rounds but the top 11 players finished par-or-better. The “old man” of the three winners above, Rory McIlroy, claimed his first FedExCup title after needing a four-hole playoff to see off Kevin Chappell and Ryan Moore. The Ulsterman won two FedExCup Playoffs events in 2012 but one of those was not the finale, reinforcing just about anything can happen. Starting the event at No. 6, McIlroy received the help he needed as top seed Dustin Johnson faded with 73 in the final round. If Chappell or Moore would have prevailed in the playoff, Johnson (T6) would have taken home the big boy bonus. McIlroy began the FedExCup Playoffs at No. 36, the second-highest ranked winner behind No. 61 Billy Horschel in 2014. Adam Scott cashed T8 and became just the fourth player to cash in the top 10 in all four FedExCup Playoffs events. Tony Finau is the only player who can join that club this year. I’ll point out the top five in this edition didn’t post a round above 70 for the week. For the second season running a player ranked in the 30s before the FedExCup Playoffs began took home the final prize of the season. Schauffele started at No. 33 and entered the week at East Lake No. 26. His birdie on the final hole that used the entire cup was enough to avoid a playoff with Justin Thomas. He became the fifth player to win the TOUR Championship in his first attempt but was just the first rookie. Only Camilo Villegas (2008 BWM Championship) has picked up his first TOUR victory in the FedExCup Playoffs. Tommy Fleetwood will be the only player that can equal that mark this week. Even though Schauffele won the event it was Justin Thomas (2nd) who was the FedExCup Playoffs champion. Thomas joins an elite club this year as he will defend his FedExCup Playoffs championship. Only Brandt Snedeker and Jordan Spieth have had this opportunity before. Schauffele will try and accomplish what has never been done as well: defend a title in the FedExCup Playoffs. NOTE: Golfers inside the top 30 in each category for the season. * – Finished inside the top 10 since 2008. Strokes-Gained: Off-the-Tee Rank  Golfer  1  *Dustin Johnson  2  *Bubba Watson  3  *Gary Woodland  5  *Jon Rahm  6  *Brooks Koepka  7  Francesco Molinari  7  Patrick Cantlay  9  *Rory McIlroy 13 *Justin Rose 14 Bryson DeChambeau 16 Tommy Fleetwood 17 *Tony Finau 19 *Billy Horschel 27 Kyle Stanley 28 *Justin Thomas 30 Aaron Wise Strokes-Gained: Tee-to-Green Rank  Golfer  1  *Dustin Johnson  2  Francesco Molinari  3  *Justin Thomas  4  Patrick Cantlay  5  *Justin Rose  6  Keegan Bradley  7  *Tiger Woods  8  Bryson DeChambeau 10 *Rory McIlroy 12 *Brooks Koepka 13 Tommy Fleetwood 14 *Tony Finau 17 *Jon Rahm 19 *Gary Woodland 20 *Rickie Fowler 21 *Hideki Matsuyama 23 Patrick Reed 29 *Paul Casey 30 *Bubba Watson Bogey Avoidance Rank  Golfer  2  *Webb Simpson  3  *Rickie Fowler  4  *Dustin Johnson  6  *Justin Rose 10 *Brooks Koepka 12 *Justin Thomas 14 *Billy Horschel 20 *Tiger Woods 22 *Tony Finau 22 *Rory McIlroy 25 *Hideki Matsuyama 27 Kevin Na 28 *Jason Day 31 Bryson DeChambeau Par-5 Scoring Rank  Golfer  1  *Dustin Johnson  1  *Tony Finau  1  *Justin Thomas  1  Tommy Fleetwood  5  *Brooks Koepka  7  Bryson DeChambeau  7  *Rory McIlroy  7  *Gary Woodland 10 *Billy Horschel 11 *Bubba Watson 11 *Justin Rose 13 *Webb Simpson 17 *Phil Mickelson 17 *Jason Day 23 *Jon Rahm 23 *Rickie Fowler 23 Keegan Bradley 23 *Tiger Woods 23 Patrick Cantlay The Par-70 layout at East Lake will stretch to 7,362 yards and for the third year running will have the nines flipped for the TOUR finale. The ultra-dwarf mini-verde Bermudagrass greens will run upward of 13 feet on the Stimpmeter and will provide adequate targets as they cover, on average, 6,200 square feet. Donald Ross designs feature greens that slope back-to-front so it’s hardly a surprise that those who can keep it below the hole will have the most chances to attack. The Zoysia/Bermudagrass rough never plays deep, less than 3.5 inches, but controlling the spin out of it will be the challenge. As we saw at Aronimink, finding the fairway off the tee allowed pins to be attacked and that shouldn’t change this week. After the 2007 event, Bentgrass was replaced by Bermudagrass so I’m not going deeper than the 2008 edition. The course record of 63 was last set in 2014 (Gary Woodland) and the “new” tournament record of 267 was posted in 2013. Bogeys will be made this week as this is a proper test of golf. Over the last three events only 15 of the 88 players to complete all four rounds had single-figure totals of bogeys. Schauffele only made seven last year to lead the field. It’s hardly a surprise that Paul Casey has finished in the top five the last three years as he has also been in the top 10 in bogey avoidance. Opportune birdies are great and taking advantage of the Par-5 No. 18, the easiest hole in the event last year, will be necessary. This will be the last time, for now, that we’ll all wave goodbye to the season in the month of September. This will also be the last time these guys compete in four FedExCup Playoffs events for a $10 million bonus. QUICK FACTS: • No player has defended in ANY FedExCup Playoffs event so all eyes are on Xander Schauffele this week. • Tiger Woods is the only player to win the FedExCup Playoffs twice (2007, 2009). • Spieth is the only player to go MC-MC to open the FedExCup Playoffs and win the title. • Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson have the most FedExCup Playoffs wins (4 each). • 2017 was the first year in six where someone has NOT won multiple FedExCup Playoffs events. That streak ended in Boston with DeChambeau claiming his second winner of the FedExCup Playoffs. • The last five years there have been five different players enter the FedExCup Playoffs at No. 1. Dustin Johnson held that honor this season. • Of the last five winners of the FedExCup Playoffs, four entered the final week No. 2 in the standings. Let’s congratulate Justin Rose on his title early! • Of the last 15 winners of a FedExCup Playoffs event, only Marc Leishman, Xander Schauffele and Keegan Bradley have ranked outside the OWGR top 15. • Camilo Villegas (2008), Rory McIlroy (2012) and Jason Day (2015) have won two FedExCup Playoffs events but have not taken home the title. #AnythingIsPossible. Rob Bolton’s Power Rankings will give you more juice for the week so make sure you stop by. It’s also who I trust with the weather each week so pay attention! NOTE: The groups below are comprehensive to assist in data mining. Inclusion doesn’t imply automatic endorsement in every fantasy game as all decisions are specific to your situation.  

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