Remember the name Denzel Ieremia.

Playing his way into the field for the Price Cutter Charity Championship on the back of a top-25 finish the week prior, the Kiwi rookie backed it up again with a tie for 23rd that may earn him yet another start in the week ahead at the Ellie Mae Classic.

In six starts on the Australasian, Asian and Korn Ferry Tours this year Ieremia has missed only one cut and when he has played all four rounds has finished in the top 25 on every occasion.

With rich New Zealand sporting bloodlines, Ieremia attended Iowa State University along with fellow Kiwi Nick Voke and has adjusted superbly to the demands of the professional game.

Tied for 38th going into the final round of the Price Cutter Charity Championship won by Harry Higgs, Ieremia played the front nine in 2-under and added two further birdies on the back nine to climb 15 spots and inside the top 25.

Showing that the veteran Kiwis can still hold their own with the good crop coming through, Steven Alker was the best of the Australasian players this week in a tie for 10th, a result that moves him inside the top 50 on the Order of Merit.

There are just two tournaments remaining in the Korn Ferry Tour regular season and there are three Australasian players in the mix for promotion to the PGA TOUR in 2020.

Rhein Gibson is guaranteed his PGA TOUR card in 10th position while Tim Wilkinson (19th) and Brett Coletta (22nd) can secure their futures with one more strong result.

Of those on the outside looking in, Jamie Arnold (34th), Alker (45th) and Cameron Percy (52nd) are currently inside the top 75 who advance to the Korn Ferry Tour Finals.

Korn Ferry Tour
Price Cutter Charity Championship
Highland Springs Country Club, Springfield, Missouri
T10        Steven Alker        67-71-64-70—272            $US18,200
T23        Denzel Ieremia   67-72-69-68—276            $6,304
T49        Brett Drewitt      70-69-73-69—281            $1,972
T49        Tim Wilkinson     70-68-70-73—281            $1,972
T56        Nick Voke            74-65-73-70—282            $1,869
T62        Bryden MacPherson         65-71-75-73—284            $1,785
MC         Jamie Arnold       71-71—142
MC         Mark Hensby      68-76—144

The PGA TOUR will have an expanded 2019-20 season schedule of 49 FedExCup tournaments, featuring a dramatically changed opening segment that includes two new tournaments, plus several late-season adjustments to accommodate next year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Eleven of the 46 Regular Season events will be between September-November, including new tournaments in The Zozo Championship in Japan and the Bermuda Championship, plus the return of A Military Tribute at the Greenbrier.

And following a one-year hiatus, the Houston Open returns on 7-13 October at Humble, Texas.

“After a very successful first year with our new schedule, we are thrilled to expand the number of events to 49 while maintaining a great flow from start-to-finish, allowing our fans to better engage and follow the TOUR throughout the season,” said PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan.

“For the second year, we’re excited about kicking off the Season of Championships with The Players (Championship) in March, bookended by the FedExCup Playoffs in August, and the return of the Olympics in that window.

“As for the early season portion of the schedule, our players grasp the importance of a strong start in the Race for the FedExCup and this has translated into growth and momentum for the events played in the fall.”

Later in the season, the TOUR will have an open week during the men’s Olympic competition (27 July-2 August) before resuming with the Wyndham Championship and three FedExCup Playoffs events.

Several changes also have been made leading up to the Olympics, most notably: the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit moving one month earlier to late May; and the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational and Barracuda Championship shifting from late July to the first week of the month, exchanging dates with the 3M Open in Blaine, Minnesota.

With the PGA TOUR season now ending in August at the Tour Championship, the 2019-20 season will open the week of 9-15 September A Military Tribute at the Greenbrier.

Several new or familiar venues are included during the US summer, beginning with the PGA Championship visiting TPC Harding Park in San Francisco, the U.S. Open returning to Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, New York, and The Open Championship going to Royal St. George’s Golf Club in Sandwich, England.

Additionally, The Northern Trust will be held for the first time in the Boston market at TPC Boston in Norton, Massachusetts, while the BMW Championship will visit Olympia Fields Country Club in suburban Chicago.

See the full schedule below:

The ball going where he’s aiming, putts dropping and three venues he enjoys playing has Marc Leishman primed to make a push deep into the upcoming FedEx Cup Playoffs.

Leishman dropped the third-best score of the week in the third round to move into contention at the WGC-FedEx St Jude Invitational at TPC Southwind, his 63 putting him three shots back of leader Rory McIlroy with one round to play.

While McIlroy struggled on Sunday with a 1-over 71, Brooks Koepka shot 65 to claim his first WGC title by three shots from Webb Simpson with Leishman a further shot back in third.

Hoping to exert some kind of pressure on Koepka early in his final round, Leishman could only manage nine straight pars before racking up five birdies in the space of seven holes to start the back-9.

A winner at the CIMB Classic in Malaysia at the start of the season, Leishman’s top-three finish is projected to move him up four spots to 11th in the FedEx Cup standings and in position to claim a sizeable chunk of the $US70 million in prize money up for grabs.

“It’s hopefully going to be a big month of golf and this is a good way to start it,” Leishman said following his final round of 3-under 67.

“It’s just nice to see a few putts go in and a few shots going where I’m looking.

“I hadn’t been playing terrible but I haven’t been playing like that.

“It’s nice to stand over an iron shot and feel like you’re actually going to hit a really good shot. I was happy with that. Excited for the Playoffs now.

“It wasn’t a win, but still a really good finish and will definitely give me confidence going into the three playoff events at two courses I love.

“Really enjoy playing Liberty National, I’ve never been to Medinah, but I love Chicago. And Atlanta,

I finally had a decent year there last year.”

On the back of his best finish at the British Open there were plenty of positives too for Cameron Smith.

With the top 70 in the FedEx Cup to progress past the first week of the playoffs to the BMW Championship, Smith’s tie for 12th at the St Jude Invitational is projected to move him from 85th to 73rd in the standings.

Crediting a sharpened short game for his form turnaround, Smith is confident his improved results can continue in the weeks to come.

“I feel like my game is coming back to where it needs to be,” Smith said.

“I feel really confident with my putter and typically when I feel good with my putter, the rest of my game just kind of comes around.

“It has been a bit of a frustrating year. I’ve had a long middle of the season there, couldn’t really get much rolling.

“I was working hard and nothing was kind of going my way. I think that’s just golf sometimes, you never really know what it’s going to throw at you.

“Keep grinding through it and the results will always be around the corner.”

Birdies at the 15th and 17th holes saw Adam Scott post his best round of the week on Sunday to move up to 40th, level with fellow Queenslander Jason Day who had three birdies and three bogeys in his even-par round of 70.

On the PGA TOUR’s concurrent Barracuda Championship veteran Robert Allenby was the only Aussie to feature in all four rounds of the modified Stableford format finishing in a tie for 67th.

WGC-FedEx St Jude Invitational
TPC Southwind, Memphis, Tennessee
3             Marc Leishman  69-69-63-67—268            $US602,000
T12        Cameron Smith  65-68-73-68—274            $143,625
T40        Adam Scott         70-68-74-67—279            $74,000
T40        Jason Day            72-69-68-70—279            $74,000

PGA TOUR
Barracuda Championship
Montreux G&CC, Reno, Nevada
T67        Robert Allenby   +5/+7/-2/+2/+12              $7,175
MC         Cameron Davis   -3/+9/+6
MC         Rod Pampling     0/+3/+3
MC         Curtis Luck          +4/-2/+2
MC         John Senden       -3/+5/+2

Charlie Dann has solidified his place inside the top 50 on the Order of Merit after the PGA TOUR Series-China tour was reduced to a 36-hole event for the second week in a row.

The Greg Norman-designed course that hosted the Dongguan Open at Mission Hills saw only half the action it expected as weather delays meant that some players didn’t complete their second rounds until Sunday morning.

American Joey Lane didn’t have to hit a single shot on the final day but his 10-under par total through 36 holes was enough to be declared the winner, his scintillating 62 in the first round setting up the first major win of his professional career.

Enjoying a strong start to his professional career, Dann’s rounds of 70-69 were good enough to enjoy a share of 25th place to stay at 49th on the moneylist.

Sydney’s Kevin Yuan also stayed inside the top 50 on the order of merit after finishing a shot shy of Dann in a tie for 34th, completing his 36 holes with three birdies, three bogeys and 30 pars on the challenging Norman layout.

A double-bogey at the par-4 12th soured Christopher Wood’s second round but he bounced back in strong fashion with three birdies in his final five holes to take a share of 48th, level with South Australian Max McCardle.

Former European Tour golfer John Wade is trying his luck at The Senior Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St. Annes Golf Club. Wade, a vocational PGA Professional, will prepare a daily blog, detailing his experience during one of the Tour’s most prestigious tournaments.

Round 1

After rising at 4:30am it was off to Lytham St Anne’s for my round 1 tee time of 7am. With record temperatures forecast for the whole of the UK it was nice to have an early start. Unfortunately, I didn’t make the most of it!

As quite often happens on these links courses you do your preparation with a certain wind direction and then it blows the other way in round 1, making the opening three holes in particular long and difficult. After battling with my long irons I opened with three bogeys through the opening stretch. I have had experiences in the Open before and one thing I have always found is you never get very comfortable on these courses, with trouble lurking everywhere you look.

I managed to steady the ship around the turn and after a couple of birdies I felt I  was finding some rhythm. However, a really soft bogey on 13 dented things and a run of loose tee shots meant I was constantly out of position on the closing holes. A run of four bogeys to finish was disappointing after scrapping hard, but not having a stock shot to help me out made it hard to find fairways. At least I got some good practice reloading provisional balls several times and giving the spotters some work to do. A round executing shots under this pressure will know doubt help me given my lack of competitive golf recently.

After completing my round I hit the players lounge hard for lunch.

The quality of this event is exceptional and has every base covered, but I must say  the player facilities are as good as I’ve experienced and I’m certainly making the most of those.

The difficulty for me these days is not being able to practice hard when I really need to. A visit to the local physio, a spa and relax watching cricket is more the routine nowadays. A bbq with some close friends from the UK will close out my day and I’m hoping to let go and free wheel things tomorrow if I want to be around for the weekend. Nice to see Dave McKenzie post a nice score today.

They say you learn more in defeat than you do from victory.

That’s how Jason Day is viewing his spectacular British Open collapse and burgeoning relationship with caddie Steve Williams.

Day is one of four Aussies in the field for this week’s WGC-FedEx St Jude Invitational in Memphis where he hopes to bury the memory of his second round fadeout at Royal Portrush.

Making a move in the second round that had the top of the leaderboard coming into view, Day fell beyond the cut-line in the space of five holes, dropping six shots to miss the cut on the number, the first time he had not played all four rounds at The Open.

Speaking with AAP’s Evin Priest in Memphis, Day said despite having the weekend off he believes he and Williams are moving forward together in the right direction.

"I think we’ve had success, even though the results haven’t really showed that," Day said.

"(Williams) has improved the way I work at the golf course during the weeks on and in the weeks off I’m working a lot harder at home.

"I’ve made a few mistakes (on the course) and we’re trying to get a feel for each other.

"I think we are on the right path we just have to stay positive and be patient because sooner or later it’s going to click."

The 2015 US PGA Championship winner lured Williams out of retirement with an aim to climb back into the top echelon of world golf but to date he has gone backwards in the rankings, dropping to No.21 in the world following The Open.

Admitting that he got “too aggressive” during his second round, Day was adamant he and Williams learned a lot from what transpired at Portrush.

"I feel I played 30 decent holes at Portrush, but I just came home poorly," Day said.

"But the good thing is, Steve and I learned a lot about certain things I need to tidy up when I get into a bad rhythm during a major."

A new venue for a WGC event, TPC Southwind hosted the FedEx St Jude Classic for almost 30 years.

A course that demands exceptional play from tee to green, Adam Scott was tied for seventh in his debut appearance at TPC Southwind in 2007 and backed that up with a tie for 10th in his only other start two years ago.

Fresh off his best-ever finish at The Open, Cameron Smith returns to TPC Southwind for the first time since missing the cut in 2016 while Day and Marc Leishman are both making their maiden appearance in the 63-man field.

Tim Hart and Taylor Macdonald have been declared joint winners of the Altitude Wealth Solutions Windaroo Lakes Pro-Am after firing rounds of 5-under 67 at Windaroo Lakes Golf Course.

In just his second Ladbrokes Pro-Am Series event for the year Macdonald played impressive golf around the challenging Windaroo Lakes layout to equal the in-form Tim Hart.

“I’ve been busy working outside of golf so I was really pleased with my round today,” said Macdonald.

“I just played steady golf for the front-9; three birdies in a row mid-way through the round got things going and I finished with a birdie on my final hole.

“The wind was hard to judge out there as it seemed to be a cross breeze on every hole which made scoring difficult.”

Tim Hart has continued his exceptional Ladbrokes Pro-Am Series form to join Macdonald at the top of the leaderboard.

“I was 4-under par through five holes courtesy of an eagle on my second hole of the day, this gave me a real boost early on in the round,” said Hart.

“I had a few up and down moments throughout the round but held it together well; I had a solid finish making a much needed birdie on my final hole.”

The next best placed professionals were Michael Wright and Matthew Millar who both finished on a score of 4-under 68.

The next stop on the Ladbrokes Pro-Am Series schedule is the Virginia Golf Club for the Breakers Beach Resort Vanuatu Pro-Am where play begins at 7.00am on Friday 26 July 2019.

Golf Australia (GA) and the PGA of Australia advise that the Isuzu Queensland Open will not be played this year, with plans to reschedule the prestigious championship in early 2020.

GA’s operations boss Simon Brookhouse said all in the industry were committed to making the Queensland Open one of Australia’s leading domestic events.

“We want to give the Queensland Open more prominence, but also make it fit in more logically among all the great summer events on the ISPS Handa PGA Tour of Australasia and ALPG Tour,” Brookhouse said.

“We remain totally committed to improving the Queensland Open and believe rescheduling it to early 2020 will help amplify its appeal.”

Brookhouse said adding women to the tournament field, potentially following the suit of the Vic Open, was among options under consideration.

Gavin Kirkman, CEO of the PGA of Australia, which also owns the ISPS Handa PGA Tour of Australasia, said it was important the Queensland Open wasn’t lost among high-profile events later this year, including the Presidents Cup and national Open and PGA championships.

“The Queensland Open is one of the Tour’s favourite championships and we stand firmly behind making next year’s tournament one of the biggest in its 94-year history,” Kirkman said.

“We are working closely with Golf Australia to ensure the event remains a launching pad for its participants to bigger and better things in their careers.

“The likes of Jason Day and Greg Norman have taken part in previous Queensland Opens and have gone on to become the world’s No.1 golfers.

“We want to ensure the next player who lifts the T.B. Hunter Cup aloft goes on to have a successful career, both locally and abroad.”

A sponsor’s exemption will allow Victorian Bryden Macpherson to end a two-year drought on America’s secondary tour at this week’s Price Cutter Charity Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour.

One of four Australians and four Kiwis in the field as the Korn Ferry Tour regular season draws to a close, Macpherson has played his entire year in Asia to date, three China Golf Tour top 10s including a tie for second behind Maverick Antcliff at the Beijing Open his best results.

The last time he played on the primary pathway to the PGA TOUR was in May 2017 at the BMW Charity Pro-Am where he missed the cut, his only other appearance a withdrawal after an opening round of 81 at the United Leasing and Finance Championship.

Macpherson’s best finish on the Korn Ferry Tour came in 2016 when he was tied for 16th at the BMW Charity Pro-Am and now gets his opportunity to return.

Jamie Arnold can push for a place in the top 25 on the order of merit having finished inside the top 10 in two of his past three starts with Brett Drewitt and Mark Hensby rounding out the Aussie contingent.

The Kiwi representation has been bolstered again this week by the outstanding first-up performance from rookie Denzel Ieremia at the Pinnacle Bank Championship.

Inside the top 10 heading into the final round in his first professional start in America, Ieremia ultimately finished tied for 22nd which was enough to earn him a second consecutive start this week.

With just three events left in the regular season it shapes as a crucial week for Tim Wilkinson who currently sits 18th in the order of merit.

Runner-up at the LECOM Health Challenge at the start of the month, Wilkinson is just one good finish shy of wrapping up a PGA TOUR card for the 2020 season.