Weekly Recap: Another Trophy for the Rack

There were at least two times during the week when Jason Kokrak felt he had no chance to win in Houston. The first came on Tuesday, when he was so bad in a practice round that he said he "contemplated actually withdrawing." Then came the end of his second round on Saturday morning, when he played the final seven holes in 7-over-par to fall 10 strokes off the pace at the tournament's midpoint.

It may not have been until Kokrak rolled in four straight birdies on the back nine Sunday that he -- and everybody else -- felt he could actually win. But he did, by two strokes, after a half dozen other guys had at least a share of the lead earlier Sunday in a mad scramble at the Hewlett Packard Enterprise Houston Open at Memorial Park Golf Course.

It was the third win in 27 starts for Kokrak over the past 13 months, after famously going 232 starts without a win to open his PGA Tour career. He is now positioned 22nd in the world rankings, equaling his career high.

Kokrak had not even recorded a top-10 since his second win, also in Texas at Colonial over Memorial Day weekend, so this win was a bit surprising even before his Tuesday and Saturday pitfalls.

"I don't know what happened, if I slept too much or whatever," he said of coming back early on Saturday to complete his weather-delayed second round. "Something happened and I just did not play my best golf. I had a really, really poor nine holes, but stuck through it, made some nice putts coming down the stretch and then started hitting more greens, which made this golf course a lot easier."

Kokrak then found a new gear over the final 36 holes, shooting 66-65.

The 36-year-old Canadian has become a bit of lightning rod this year, though not because of his golf, at least not directly. In July he signed on to become an "ambassador" for Golf Saudi, as in Saudi Arabia, as in the country now trying to formulate a competing golf tour to the PGA Tour. Critics say this is an attempt at "sportswashing" -- using sports to cover up or wash away Saudi Arabia's controversial human rights record.

There had been a European Tour event in Saudi Arabia the past three winters, with a number of PGA Tour players -- Americans and internationals -- playing. The February tournament will now be part of the Asian Tour, and Kokrak and some other Americans, including defending champion Dustin Johnson, have again petitioned the PGA Tour to be allowed to play. They were granted permission when the tournament was a European Tour event. The decision on this year's tournament must come no later than 30 days before the event, GolfWeek has reported.

This all has the potential to get very messy, and Kokrak, now aligned at least on some level with the Saudis, may have to make some important decisions about his golf future, and his endorsement deals.

Kokrak has withdrawn from the fall-swing-ending RSM Classic, though that is just a case of wanting to rest after a big victory. And we won't see him next month at the Hero World Challenge, either. We'll likely see Kokrak the second week of January at the 2022 opener, the Tournament of Champions.

Depending on how things shake out, Kokrak once again seems primed for big year ahead on the PGA Tour -- and in fantasy golf.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Scottie Scheffler
Scheffler still is winless on Tour, but this tournament was different. It's one thing to be in contention on Sunday, another to shoot a 62 on Friday, be the 54-hole leader and still ahead by multiple shots on the back nine. This one got away from Scheffler thanks to three bogeys in a five-hole stretch, and he settled for co-runner-up with Kevin Tway. It's his best finish in a stroke-play event (equaling his Match Play runner-up), but it surely won't feel that way. Scheffler now has two consecutive top-5s and is up to 17th in the world. His win is coming, but this one will sting. He'll have another chance this week at The RSM Classic. We'll see if he can forget this disappointment quickly.

Kevin Tway
This shared runner-up was Tway's best showing since he won the 2018 Safeway (now Fortinet). He entered ranked 533rd in the world. As we often write, it's impossible to predict when Mr. 500-something will have a great week, if ever, but it is easier to forecast that it won't be happening again anytime soon. Since the beginning of 2019, Tway has missed 37 of 67 cuts, and this was just his second top-10. For those wondering what a runner-up does to a ranking of 533? It's moves it to 230.

Kramer Hickok
In Hickok's previous nine tournaments, he had made it Sunday in only four of them and never finished better than 30th.  But the one before that stretch was runner-up at the Travelers (remember the eight-hole playoff with Harris English?) and now he has a solo fourth. This was only his 78th PGA Tour start, so he may be on to something. Hickok is not super young, but at 29 he's still young enough to make his on Tour.

Martin Trainer
There may not be a more astounding paragraph you will read about golf all year: Trainer's tie for fifth was only his 10th made cut in his past 71 starts, since winning the 2019 Puerto Rico Open. In that span, his best showing was T41. No, don't even ask if Trainer, ranked 1,310th entering the week before zooming to 560th, now becomes a fantasy option.

Joel Dahmen
Dahmen won at the Dominican Republic earlier this year and tied for seventh at the Barracuda. Those were his two best results and both came in opposite-field events. So in a way his tie for fifth in Houston was his best showing of the year and will move him back into the top 100 of the OWGR. 

Sam Burns
In an off week for Burns, he tied for seventh. Ho-hum. He really could make a run at the top 10 in 2022.

Cameron Tringale
After a runner-up at the ZOZO in Japan, Tringale continued plugging toward a hopeful top-50 ranking. He tied for seventh at Houston to move to 53rd, and he'll tee it up again this week at the RSM. Tringale's prices have been fairly elevated during the fall swing. He might be one of the better bargains come January.
 
Matthew Wolff
Wolff played Sunday in the final group. We'll remember his hole-in-one on No. 9 -- and at 187 yards it was a big-boy ace. But he already had three bogeys by then and then had three more on the back-nine to tumble to T11. Disappointing, sure, but not in the big picture of where Wolff was just a few months ago. This was his fourth straight top-20, two of which were top-5s, and he seems primed for a big year ahead in 2022.

Aaron Rai
The Englishman may be getting the hang of the PGA Tour. He tied for 19th for his second straight top-20. He'll give it a go again this week at Sea Island, and bears consideration with what should again be a favorable DraftKings price.

Brooks Koepka
Koepka will be one of two PGA Tour golfers playing the week after The RSM Classic, and he's not exactly in the best form. In advance of The Match against Bryson DeChambeau the day after Thanksgiving, Koepka missed the cut in Houston, where he tied for fifth a year ago. He's now missed two cuts in a row, hasn't had a top-20 since the Open Championship and has fallen to No. 16 in the world rankings. The Match was already shaping up as a bore since Koepka and DeChambeau bro-hugged at the Ryder Cup; Koepka being completely off form doesn't help.

Joaquin Niemann
Niemann missed only his second cut of 2021 and first since the Memorial. He's had three runners-up this year, two of which came in the first two events in January. It's hard to say someone with three runners-up, not to mention a T5 last week at Mayakoba, had bad year, and Niemann didn't. But something seemed lacking with him this year. He hasn't seemed as relevant week-in and week-out as some other top players. In fairness, he's still very young, still only 23.

Stewart Cink
The 48-year-old missed the cut to fall out of the top 50 in the world a week before the winter break. The benchmark doesn't have the same meaning for him as it does for others, as Cink won earlier this year and also reached the TOUR Championship, so he will be in the Masters and other big events in 2022. He will also be in the field for The RSM Classic.

Ian Poulter
Like Cink, Poulter missed the cut and has also has slipped outside the top 50 of late. Unlike Cink, he's not exempt into the Masters yet. He'll like ly have just this week in Dubai at the European Tour's season-ending DP World Tour Championship to qualify for Augusta before year's end. If not, Poulter of course has other ways to qualify before the early April major. But it sure would be comforting to get that 17th Masters berth out of the way.

Seamus Power
Power missed the cut. No biggie. The way he'd been playing, it's okay. In his prior 12 starts, he had nine top-25s and four top-10s, one of which was his win at the Barbasol. Power is now inside the top-100 in the world.

Chase Koepka
Koepka got into Houston on a sponsor's invite, perhaps tied to his older brother's consulting work on the Memorial Park redesign a couple of years ago. He missed the cut in only his fourth PGA Tour event this year. Koepka had made two of three cuts prior. He played some events in Canada and the Korn Ferry Tour this year. He's ranked well outside the top 1,000 in the OWGR.