Stephan

Jaeger

The Englishman played 50 counting rounds toward the challenge with an average score to par of -0.885 on the selected challenge holes. He peppered 82 percent of the par fives in regulation, posting an 81 percent birdie rate along the way. Hatton narrowly edged out Stephan Jaeger on the season-long standings with Tommy Fleetwood, Adam Scott, and Scottie Scheffler rounding out the top five. Hatton will be rewarded the Aon trophy and a $1 million prize for his season-long performance. “This competition rewards strategic thinking and the ability to execute on a consistent basis. It’s an honor to be named this season’s best decision maker. "

Jaeger poked 7-of-13 fairways but did most of his damage with the irons. He stuffed 17 GIR, gaining 4.2 strokes on approach (1st) along the way. “I think this golf course requires a lot of shots between about 140 and 200. There’s not a lot of wedges out there unless you get some holes downwind or something. That’s why I kind of played good today, my iron play was good. I didn’t stuff a lot of them, but I hit them on the right sides and made a couple 15-, 20-footers.” This isn’t his first taste of success at Vidanta Villarta as he posted a T15 here last year.

Jaeger was fourth on the opening odds board so this is a big WD for those playing the markets. He would have been a popular selection this week, having a pair of top 30s in his last three starts (T14 at the Honda and T27 at the Valspar). Gamers should remove him from all weekly rosters.

Jaeger steadied 14 greens in regulation today, gaining 2.7 strokes on approach (3rd). He also cleaned up nicely around the greens, gaining 1.5 strokes in that category. “I hit some good putts, drove it really nice on the back nine, gave myself a lot of chances to hit it on the greens. These greens are pretty small, so if you’ve hit ‘em in the right spots, you’ve got a lot of short putts in, and just kind of made the right putts and scored on the par-5s, which was nice. I didn’t do a good job with that last week, so I’m happy I did that this week.” If this co-lead holds it will be his second time holding a lead or co-lead after round one of a PGA TOUR event (T48, 2021 Corales).

The German was making his second appearance (CUT/2019) and after recording rounds of 67-68-65-68, secures his place in the postseason in two weeks at a projected 94th in the FedExCup standings (up 29 from 123rd). This is just his second top-10 finish in 91 career events, joining a prior-best T6 at the Wells Fargo (TPC Potomac) nine starts ago, and is in the published field at this coming week’s Wyndham in North Carolina. For the week, the UT-Chattanooga alum totaled 27 birdies against seven bogeys, six versus two in R4, and ranked 11th SG: Tee-to-Green (7.516) and 7th SG: Putting (5.088). See link below to post-round comments.

The German, and reigning Korn Ferry Tour Player of the Year, is playing his third season on TOUR, first since finishing a career-best 152nd in the FedExCup standings in 2019. He arrived this week 123rd in the FEC points race, has now made 13 cuts against 16 missed cuts, and in 90 career events on the main stage, has one top-10 finish, a backdoor T6 at the Wells Fargo (TPC Potomac) nine starts ago, where he was T24 thru 54 holes. At the three-quarter pole this week, the 33-year-old has posted laps of 67-68-65, totaled 21 birdies against five bogeys, eight versus one in R3, and ranks 11th SG: Tee-to-Green (6.577), 4.312 of that on Saturday, and 5th SG: Putting (4.867), including a pedestrian 0.395 SGP in R3. This is his first time (individually) that he’s in the top 10 heading into the final round. See link below to post-round comments.

The reigning Korn Ferry Tour Player of the Year is off the schneid, recording his 12th career top 25 in 82 events, second straight after a T15 last week in Mexico, and finally a first top 10. His prior best was T13 on debut at the 2018 Quicken Loans National at this course, where he was top rookie that week of 16 with rounds of 67-73-65-68. This week, the UT Chatanooga alum tossed up laps of 67-71-73-66, the closing 66 currently tied for the second-best round of the day, and totaled 15 birdies against six bogeys and three doubles. At last check, the Munich, Germany, native ranks 3rd SG: Tee-to-Green (10.042), including a 1st-place ranking around-the-green (4.627), and 41st in SG: Putting (0.033), mustering just a 0.058 SGP in R4 but tossing up a 5.160 SG TTG and 5.218 SG: Total. This was his third WFC, missing the cuts in 2018 and 2019 at Quail Hollow Club, so he was one who appreciated the one-time move to TPC Potomac, and heads off to this coming week’s AT&T Byron Nelson with a bit of a tailwind. See link below to post-round comments.

When the 32-year-old German dropped out of the event, he was first replaced by Andres Romero, but Romero and multiple other alternates passed on the spot due to the international travel. Jaeger had made three previous appearances at Corales, where he’s never missed the cut and recorded a best finish of T-26 in 2019. This week will mark the second PGA Tour appearance in 2022 for Axley, who missed the cut earlier this month in Puerto Rico. He’s also missed the cut in all four Korn Ferry Tour starts this season.

The 2021 Korn Ferry Tour Player of the Year is making his third appearance, first since a best of T66 in 2019 during his second season on the main stage (70-71-72-74). It’s his first lap in the 60s at the Farmers in seven tries and is in the top 10 after 18 holes for a first time this season in nine events, and first since last season’s opposite-field Barracuda nine starts ago, where he was solo 2nd (Stableford Scoring) before fading to 42nd. The 32-year-old, he of 58 fame on the KFT, owns 10 career top 25s on TOUR in 70 events, one this season in eight starts (T20, Bermuda), but is still searching for his first top 10. Today, he spread out seven birdies on six (of 14) fairways and 15 greens in regulation, posting 1.667 putts per GIR. See link below to post-round comments.

Despite missing the cut at Sea Island Resort, the 32-year-old German ended the calendar year on a high after being awarded the Jack Nicklaus Trophy for Korn Ferry Tour Player of the Year last season. He finished first on the KFT’s regular-season point standings to earn his Tour card for this season, and won two KFT events last season to bring his total to six -- tied for the most all-time with Jason Gore. Jaeger has had an uneven start to the new season: He made seven starts in the fall but saw weekend action just three times – finishing T-26 at the Sanderson Farms, T-20 at Bermuda and T-35 at the Houston Open. He’s teed it up twice before at the Sony Open, finishing T-43 in 2019 and T-54 in 2018. Jaeger starts the week listed at +15000 via PointsBet Sportsbook, with recent Sentry Tournament of Champions winner Cameron Smith listed as the early favorite at +1000.