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Backs against the wall and Beau Hossler, Billy Horschel come out swinging at Wyndham
GREENSBORO, N.C. – With their backs against the wall, Beau Hossler and a host of pros needing a big week to make the FedEx Cup playoffs got off to hot starts at the hot and muggy Wyndham Championship on Thursday.
No one went lower than Hossler, who made four birdies in a row on the front nine and played the final four holes in 4 under, including an eagle at 15, to shoot a sizzling 9-under 61 at Sedgefield Country Club and take the early lead. It wasn't even his low opening round in this event — two years ago he fired 60 en route to a T-12 finish.
But the key this go-round for Hossler, who enters the week at No. 122 in the season-long standings, and several of the other players who went low is to ignore the elephant in the room: unless they have a magical week at the 34 th and final regular season FedEx Cup event, there will be no playoffs and they will have work to do this fall to maintain their status in the big leagues.
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“There's lots of players that this week's performance does impact moving on or not or whatever,” Hossler said after carding his round of the year. “I think if you let that consume you, it's a dangerous thing. So at the end of the day, it's golf. I'm going to go try and play great golf and kind of see where the cards fall.”
On Thursday, his 27-foot eagle putt at 15 fell like a domino to put an exclamation on a solid round.
“Hit a 6-iron onto the back fringe, it barely hung on. Was a really awkward putt, was honestly just trying to lag it down there to something very makeable and got lucky that it went in,” he said.
Hossler began working with instructor Adam Schriber earlier this year “to diagnose and understand what my swing looks like when I’ve played my best in the past and try to reverse engineer that,” he said.
It’s worked to some effect. Hossler ranks 40 th in Strokes Gained: Total, which sums up individual categories: Off-the-Tee, Approach-the-Green, Around-the-Green, and Putting, an improvement of 78 spots in the standings from last year. Somehow that success hasn't translated to any big paydays. He ranks 133rd on the money list, which doesn't add up.
“It’s two factors,” said Hossler, who can only get into the playoffs with a win. “If you play decent every week, you don’t get any points (he has only four top 25s) and if you’re not in the signature events you don’t get any points. It’s a combination of that. I’d be better off missing a bunch of cuts and having more top 10s. That hasn’t been the way it has crumbled this year.”
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The cookie hasn’t crumbled well for Denny McCarthy this year either. After finishing inside the top 50 in recent years, he enters the week at No. 84 and needs no worse than a solo fifth to improve into the top 70 and earn a berth at the first leg of the playoffs in Memphis.
“It's a little adversity I've got to face this year, right? It hasn't been the kind of year that I've wanted; it's been tough, but things can change quickly out here,” he said. “No secrets, I've got to have a really good week to get into next week. Figured come out firing, playing really freely. I feel like I did a really good job of that for the most part today.”
Indeed, he did, carding a bogey-free 6-under 64 to share second with Matti Schmid, Davis Thompson and Hayden Springer, who are all outside the top 70, too, for the playoffs.
“With the position I'm in, I can't put too much emphasis on it,” said Thompson, who entered the week at No. 81. “I just have to go execute golf shots and try to put good rounds together and hopefully by the end of the week I'm inside that number.”
Billy Horschel has four top-10 finishes in his last five starts at Sedgefield and is off to a good start this week of getting that elusive win here after holing a 45-foot eagle at 15 and shooting 65. At No. 107 in the FedEx Cup, it’s now-or-never time for Horschel.
“Listen, I know what I need to do this week. I'm not focusing on it one bit,” Horschel said. “I'm more or less just focused on trying to play good golf, something I haven't done on a routine basis this year.”
Adam Schupak is a senior writer for Golfweek, covering the PGA Tour.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Backs against the wall and Beau Hossler, Billy Horschel come out swinging at Wyndham
BacksBeau HosslerBilly HorschelWyndhamWyndham ChampionshipFedEx CupWithHosslerSedgefield Country ClubMoreRoundThere
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