No. 1 doesn’t guarantee FedEx Cup success

Hideki Matsuyama is the fifth player in the last five years to be the No. 1 seed going into the FedEx Cup playoffs.

Only one of those players, Jordan Spieth in 2015, has gone on to capture the FedEx Cup. In fact, Tiger Woods is the only other No. 1 seed to win the US$10-million prize in 2007 and 2009. Woods failed to win as the No. 1 seed in 2013.

Then again, it helps to start with a high seed.

Only two players have won the FedEx Cup when starting the playoffs outside the top 20 — Billy Horschel (No. 69) in 2014 and Rory McIlroy (No. 36) last year. In both cases, each won a playoff event and the Tour Championship.

Between the shots

Brooks Koepka and Ricky Elliott are like most players and caddies who try to keep the conversation away from golf between shots.

And that goes for any shot in any situation.

Koepka considers the eight-iron he hit on the 15th hole at Erin Hills his best shot during the final round of his U.S. Open victory.

The pin was all the way back and to the right into the wind. The shot landed pinhigh and settled about 10 feet away before a successful birdie attempt.

“It was pretty impressive ... probably one of the best shots I’ve hit all week, to be honest with you,” he said. And the conversation before that? “We were talking about a vacation, where we wanted to go this year, right before we hit that shot to the back right pin,” Koepka said. “We had talked about Vietnam, maybe. We usually do a vacation kind of October, November, go over for a week somewhere in Asia.

“We were trying to figure out the best place to go, because we’ve already been in Thailand, been to Bali. Where else do we want to go? So that was a conversation that we were having before we hit that shot.” And then? “He handed me the club and we hit it,” Koepka said. “He says, ‘Good shot.’ And then we continued the conversation.”

Stat of the week

Henrik Stenson (No. 9) was the first player from the top 10 in the world to win the Wyndham Championship since Hal Sutton won in 2000 when he was No. 4 in the world.