Week in 60s carries no guarantees on PGA Tour

Four rounds in the 60s used to go a long way on the PGA Tour.

That was a long time ago.

Starting with the Sentry Tournament of Champions in January through the RSM Classic in November, the tour had 149 players who shot all four rounds in the 60s without winning.

Vaughn Taylor gets the dubious distinction of doing that seven times, including the last two events he played this year. Taylor was runner-up in the Mayakoba Classic and tied for 10th at the RSM Classic. His four sub-70 rounds also earned him top-10 finishes in the Desert Classic, Travelers Championship and John Deere Classic.

And then there was the Wyndham Championship, where his four rounds in the 60s was good for a tie for 39th. Only two of seven tournaments were on par-70 courses — Wyndham and Travelers.

Sebastian Munoz had six tournaments this year with all four rounds in the 60s without winning, followed by Wes Roach and Webb Simpson, each doing it five times.

That usually speaks to the strength of the course. It happened to Dustin Johnson only twice — at The Players Championship and the World Golf Championships in Memphis, Tennessee. One of the two times it happened to Brooks Koepka was at the U.S. Open, making him the first player to do that in the U.S. Open.

Missing from the list: Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. Both won PGA Tour events this year with all four rounds in the 60s — Woods in Japan, McIlroy in Canada — but they didn't have four sub-70 rounds without winning.

Kopeka still No. 1

Koepka ends the year the way it started at No. 1 in the world, making him the first player since Woods in 2008 and 2009 to end consecutive years at No. 1.

But he didn't earn the most points.

That honor belonged to Rory McIlroy, No. 2 in the world, who earned 496.25 ranking points from the 25 events he played. Koepka was next at 380.49 points in 22 events, narrowly ahead of Jon Rahm (374.47 points in 25 events).

Rounding out the top 10 in raw ranking points earned for 2019 were Justin Thomas,Dustin Johnson, Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, Tommy Fleetwood, Paul Casey and Shane Lowry.

Masters champion Woods checked in at No. 13 in points earned. Then again, he played only 14 events.

McIlroy also earned the most points per start at 19.85, followed by Koepka at 17.3. Woods was third in that category at 16.64, followed by Johnson (15.07) and Rahm (14.98).

Kisner seeks consistency

Kevin Kisner is still working with swing coach John Tillery. He just doesn't want to lean on him as much.

Kisner says one goal for the new year is to be more consistent with his ball-striking, which he said held him back. And given his lack of power off the tee, he can't afford that to be the case. Most aggravating was that he says he knows his tendencies in the swing. It's a matter of executing.

“For the last three years, I've been so inconsistent,” Kisner said. "I probably rely too much on a swing coach. So I'm going away from that in '20 and really own it.”

He said Tillery would still travel to tournaments and be with him occasionally on the range. Kisner said he doesn't want to be relying on feedback after every swing.

“I've done that for the last 10 years,” Kisner said. “I'm 35. If I haven't figured it out by now ... I just have to keep the things I need to do well in front of my head.”

PGA TOUR

Event: Sentry Tournament of Champions, Thursday-Sunday, Kapalua Resort, Plantation Clurse, Kapalua, Hawaii.

At stake: $6.7 million purse ($1,340,000 and 500 FedEx Cup points to the winner).

Defending champion: Xander Schauffele.

TV: Golf Channel (Thursday-Friday, 6-10 p.m.; Saturday, 6-8 p.m.; Sunday, 6-10 p.m.); NBC (Saturday, 4-6 p.m.).

Area players entered: Lanto Griffin, Matt Kuchar, Keith Mitchell, J.T. Poston.

Notable: The field is for PGA Tour winners during the 2019 calendar year, with 34 of the 42 winners entered. Gary Woodland, who won the U.S. Open, is the only major champion playing. … Fifteen of the players in the field won for the first time last year. … Leading the field are Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas and Patrick Reed. … Johnson has won the event twice and finished among the top-10 seven years in a row. … Schauffele shot 62 in the final round last year to edge Woodland.

ROAD TO THE PLAYERS

Dates: March 12-15.

Days to first round: 70.

Events before The Players: 11.

Defending champion: Rory McIlroy.

Players trivia: Mclroy was the first player from the United Kingdom to win The Players since Sandy Lyle of Scotland in 1987.

Tickets: theplayers.com.