Adam

Long

Long started his week with a 3-over 73 which put him near the bottom of the leaderboard. He traded four bogeys with just one birdie. The Duke alum will register this as his first mid-tournament WD, in 110 career starts. Long is still in good position in the FedExCup race as he entered at 71st and will likely remain inside of the top 80 by week’s end.

The Duke alum has handed in rounds of 70-67-67, today’s effort one of only two bogey-free laps on Saturday (Justin Thomas/63). On 11 (of 13) fairways and 16 greens in regulation, he ticked three birdies at holes 2, 9 and 10, two from between 10 and 23 feet, recording 0.999 SG: Tee-to-Green and 1.401 SG: Putting. At the three-quarter pole, the 34-year-old has tallied nine birdies versus just three bogeys, T1 in the latter, and ranks 18th TTG (5.951) and 24th SGP (2.581). This is his second time this season in 23 events that he’s in the top 10 thru 54 holes, first since the Houston Open back in November, where he was T10 before finishing a still-season-best T11.

The Duke product striped all 13 fairways but landed just 13 GIR from there. He gave himself just five scoring chances from inside of 15 feet but converted four of them and scrambled well on the other holes. “The misses are, you know, very okay, nothing detrimental, nothing way out of play or anything. The misses are just a little off and the good ones are good, so it’s been giving me enough chances.” He’s managing his misses well but will likely need to tidy up the iron play over the weekend if he wants to remain in the hunt. If this co-lead holds then it’ll be his first time holding a 36-hole lead or co-lead on the PGA TOUR.

The South Florida resident and New Orleans native owns four podiums in 101 events, two of those in Mexico. The first, a T2 at the 2019-20 Mayakoba, where he was T2 after R1, and the second, a T3 at the 2020-21 Mayakoba, where he was T36 after R1 (70-67-63-67). Today, the Duke alum played in the more challenging wave (winds-wise) and offset two squares with a hole-out eagle-3 at 12 (from 52'7" away) and four birdies, including a birdie-birdie finish at 17 (21'7") and 18, and a hole-out 4 at 6 from 25'6" away. His other two podiums are a solo 2nd at the 2020 3M Open, and his lone TOUR win at the 2019 (3-course) Desert Classic as a pre-tourney 500/1 outright and World No. 417 during his rookie season.

The 34-year-old Long was a rookie when he won his first career Tour title in just his sixth start at what was then called the Desert Classic, shooting a final-round 65 to win by one shot over Phil Mickelson and Adam Hadwin. After entering the week with a career-low of 66 (Round 1 of the 2018 Safeway Open), Long recorded three scores of 65 or better (63-63-65) and needed just 98 putts for the week, marking the fewest in the field. He became the second rookie to win during the 2018-19 season (along with Cameron Champ at the Sanderson Farms Championship, while Mickelson’s T-2 marked his fourth top-three result in 16 starts at the event, including wins in 2002 and 2004. Long has made eight starts in the new season, missing two cuts including last week at the Sony Open. However, he posted four straight finishes inside the top-25 to end the fall series, with his best being a T-11 at the Houston Open. Last season, Long was 85th on the FedExCup standings, making 14 cuts in 30 starts with two top 10s.

You’ve undoubtedly heard of feast-or-famine, or boom-or-bust options, and the Duke alum currently fits squarely into those categories, more so than most even. In his last 28 starts dating to February, he’s either finished in the top 30, or missed the cut. Broken down a little further, the 34-year-old has missed 17 cuts in those 28 events, while finishing T22, T28, T20, T26, T23, T25, T29, T25, T22, T11 and T16 in the others. He ended the fall portion of the wraparound schedule cashing four consecutive top 25s, T11 and T16 in his last two, and in 15 measured rounds, ranked 146th SG: Tee-to-Green (-.268) though 4th in SG: Putting (1.328). The South Florida resident owns one TOUR win in 90 events, claiming the 3-course Desert Classic in 2019 in his sixth career event, fifth as a member, where he came from three back (3rd) with 7-under 65 to win by one over 54-hole leader Phil Mickelson and Adam Hadwin.

The South Florida resident, who finished T11 here on debut last year (68-70-69-67), arrived 3-for-5 on the season with two top 25s, two straight after a T22 last week in Mexico. If he remains in the top 10 after R2 is completed tomorrow (Saturday), it would be his first time there since last season’s stand-alone Corales in the fall portion of the wraparound schedule, where he was T5 and then the 54-hole leader by two before finishing solo 5th (70-65-64-75). The 34-year-old is a one-time TOUR winner in 88 events, claiming the 3-course Desert Classic in his sixth career event and fifth as a member during his rookie campaign, where he came from three back (3rd) with 7-under 65 to win by one over 54-hole leader Phil Mickelson and Adam Hadwin. Today, he ticked three birdies on six (of 13) fairways and 13 greens in regulation, losing 0.700 strokes off-the-tee but gaining a whopping 4.066 with the flat stick, including two scoring conversions from between 11 and 24 feet, and two par-savers from between 14 and 20 feet.

The Duke product piped 9-of-13 fairways during his opening round, which was delayed due to weather on Thursday morning. From there, he landed 12 greens in regulation, gaining 1.5 strokes on approach along the way. That helped set up four birdies converted from inside of nine feet. He also holed out from 49'1" at the 12th and followed that up with a 17'1" birdie splash at the 13th. Long was 4.2 shots better than the field average in round one, marking the third time in his last eight rounds that he has gained at least 3.3 shots over the field. The 34-year-old entered with back-to-back top 25s and could be on his way toward a third straight.

Collecting three top-30 finishes already this season, the former Duke Blue Devil’s early results may be flying a bit under the radar. A T-29 result at the Sanderson Farms Championship came courtesy of +5.8 Strokes Gained Putting. Taking to international waters, the 34-year-old captured a T-25 finish at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP and a T-22 finish last week at Mayakoba. He now returns to Memorial Park, where he found some success last season. Eventually finishing in a tie for 11th, Long was able to gain just about seven-strokes from tee-to-green despite giving up significant distance off-the-tee. If able to consistently find fairways once again, a similar result could come to fruition given the current trajectory his game is heading.

ZJ was in the hunt last week at TPC Deere Run but settled for T34 after a Sunday 71. Johnson sports a strong resume at The Open but won’t get a chance to improve upon that in 2021. His record at The Open includes a trio of top 10s with the 2015 victory at St. Andrews being the obvious highlight. Posting pre-tourney WDs this morning as well were Louis de Jager (COVID-19) and Ryan Moore (back injury). Golfers that gained entry after those WDs were Adam Long, Sam Horsfield, and Dylan Frittelli.