Mickelson to return at CareerBuilder ChallengeMickelson to return at CareerBuilder Challenge
Mickelson to return at CareerBuilder Challenge
Day: January 18, 2017
Phil Mickelson set to return at CareerBuilder Challenge (Sports Betting News)Phil Mickelson set to return at CareerBuilder Challenge (Sports Betting News)
Phil Mickelson is set to play the CareerBuilder Challenge, returning from two sports hernia surgeries a week earlier than he originally expected. ”I feel good and I want to play,” Mickelson said Wednesday in a statement. The 46-year-old Mickelson had surgery Oct. 19 – three days after tying for eighth in the season-opening Safeway Open – and again Dec. 12.
Hawks trade veteran Williams to NuggetsHawks trade veteran Williams to Nuggets
Hawks trade veteran Williams to Nuggets
Adams joins Nelson as latest question in Packers WR group (Sports Betting News)Adams joins Nelson as latest question in Packers WR group (Sports Betting News)
GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy says receiver Davante Adams may not practice until Saturday because of an ankle injury, the latest question for a receiving group that may also be without Jordy Nelson for the NFC championship game.
One & Done: CareerBuilder ChallengeOne & Done: CareerBuilder Challenge
What a time to be alive! Two weeks after PGA TOUR Fantasy One & Done presented by SERVPRO launched, we now present PGA TOUR Champions One & Done presented by SERVPRO. The Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai gets us going this Thursday. It’s the only 54-hole tournament of the season that ends on Saturday. Power Rankings for every tournament as well as Expert Picks for the One & Done will be published. I’ll be participating as an Expert, so follow my (hopeful) progress there and in the PGA TOUR Experts league on the gaming platform at FantasyGolf.PGATOUR.COM. My primer for PGA TOUR Champions One & Done presented by SERVPRO includes all kinds of strategic facts and angles to help you succeed in the inaugural version of the game. In addition, during weeks that the PGA TOUR Champions is in action, I’ll include a special section at the bottom of this column. It’ll focus on the success of notables at a particular venue. With a maximum of only 23 golfers to burn, there won’t be much of a need to deviate from the chalk, but any time there is reason to highlight a guy whose history on a course is too good to overlook, he’ll also be included. Shifting to the main game, if you ever wondered what it was like to give it a go in a competitive arena, suffice it to say that PGA TOUR Fantasy One & Done presented by SERVPRO is fulfilling your wish. Thirty-three gamers have scored the maximum 800 points through two events. Because Justin Thomas won both stops in Hawaii and can be selected only once, the best anyone who harvested one of his 500-point outputs is 300 points for second place in the other. Good shootin’, gang. It’s not often that a secondary weapon like Bill Haas rises into the role of no-brainer, but that’s the case at the CareerBuilder Challenge. His record in recent years is unrivaled what with two wins, a total of five top 10s and position atop the tournament’s all-time money list. He’s also fresh off a T13 at the Sony Open in Hawaii and hasn’t finished outside the top 20 in any of his four starts this season. Even if you occasionally tilt toward riding a wild card, he checks that box, too. He’s my pick. Tom and Chris will also take Haas for a ride, but both rookie Experts and Sean have seen enough from Jamie Lovemark to plug him in. Hey, no complaints. The tall drink of water sits No. 2 in my Power Rankings. My only concern is that, aw, never mind. I couldn’t try to talk you out of the guy even if my only intention was to get under the skin of my competition. If you’re reading and embroiled in a two-man private game, connect Haas and Lovemark and have a nice weekend. Mark’s move toward Charles Howell III is as safe as any, and he’d be my pick if Haas was already exhausted. Each of us is tempted to turn to CH3 at some point on the West Coast Swing. Mark joins Sean and I after our two-way T8 at Waialae. Two-time CareerBuilder champ Phil Mickelson sits second in all-time earnings here, but he’s a question mark at best upon returning from two surgeries to relieve discomfort from a sports hernia. He hasn’t competed in earnest since mid-October, so the timeline to return is about right, but there’s no reason to rush into him in PGA TOUR Fantasy One & Done presented by SERVPRO. For the record, my comp for that injury is Jason Kokrak, who was sidelined for three months late in the summer of 2014 following surgery for the same malady. But he was just 29 years of age at the time. I’m holding my breath on Mickelson’s ability to hit the ground running. Or walking, as is the case in golf. Believe it or not, Webb Simpson presents surprising value this week. Normally a moving target, he’s been anything but since the anchoring ban went into effect. Luke List also stands to attention as a 1a or 1b. He just turned 32 years of age, but he’s been making up for lost time in a big way in recent months. Notables Zach Johnson, Patrick Reed and Jon Rahm can be holstered. Of course, you’ll be getting used to that phrase as it concerns ZJ, at least until the John Deere Classic comes into view. FUTURE POSSIBILITIES NOTE: Select golfers are sorted alphabetically. Future possibilities are sorted chronologically and reflect previous success on the courses on which the tournaments will be held in 2016-17. All are pending golfer commitment. Jason Bohn … Greenbrier Keegan Bradley … Waste Management; Genesis; Houston; Byron Nelson; Memorial; WGC-Bridgestone; Dell Technologies Paul Casey … Masters; Travelers; WGC-Bridgestone; TOUR Championship Jason Dufner … CareerBuilder (defending); Valspar; Byron Nelson; DEAN & DELUCA; U.S. Open; TOUR Championship Bill Haas … CareerBuilder; Valspar; Wyndham Russell Henley … Houston Charley Hoffman … CareerBuilder; Heritage; Valero; New Orleans; Byron Nelson; DEAN & DELUCA; Travelers; Canadian Charles Howell III … Farmers; Valspar; Houston; Byron Nelson Zach Johnson … Waste Management; Arnold Palmer; PLAYERS; DEAN & DELUCA; John Deere; Open Championship; WGC-Bridgestone; TOUR Championship Chris Kirk … Valero; New Orleans; DEAN & DELUCA Kevin Kisner … PLAYERS; DEAN & DELUCA; Wyndham Martin Laird … CareerBuilder; Farmers; Waste Management; Barracuda William McGirt … Genesis; Honda; Heritage; Memorial (defending); Wyndham Bryce Molder … Waste Management; Heritage; New Orleans; DEAN & DELUCA; Greenbrier Francesco Molinari … Arnold Palmer; PLAYERS Kevin Na … Valspar; Arnold Palmer; Heritage; Memorial; John Deere; Wyndham Ryan Palmer … CareerBuilder; Waste Management; Valero; Byron Nelson; DEAN & DELUCA; St. Jude Scott Piercy … Houston; John Deere; BMW Patrick Reed … Pebble Beach; Valspar; Houston; Wyndham; Dell Technologies Webb Simpson … CareerBuilder; Waste Management; Greenbrier; Wyndham Scott Stallings … Farmers; New Orleans Brendan Steele … Waste Management; Honda; Valero; Travelers; Barracuda (already eligible for concurrent WGC-Bridgestone) Kevin Streelman … CareerBuilder; Memorial Boo Weekley … Puerto Rico; Heritage; New Orleans; St. Jude; Barbasol CHAMPIONS ONE & DONE POSSIBILITIES Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai Golfers listed alphabetically. Rob’s serious considerations in bold. Woody Austin … Winner of the unofficial Diamond Resorts Invitational in Florida last week. Now making his debut at Hualalai. Thrice a winner in 2016; seventh on the money list. Fred Couples … Last four appearances, respectively: 4th-T2-3rd-T6. Valid concern in that he’s made only one start in last 11 months due to wrist and back injuries. Joe Durant … T4 in his first appearance last year. Went on to finish third on the season money list. Ranked fifth the year before. Runner-up at last week’s Diamond Resorts Invitational. David Frost … Lost in a playoff here in 2013. Has another pair of top 10s and two more top 20s in a total of six trips. Jay Haas … Six top fives in 11 trips, including a T4 last year. Still cruising at 63 years of age. Miguel Angel Jiménez … 2015 champion. Bernhard Langer … Two-time winner (2009, 2014). Seven top 10s in nine appearances. Tom Lehman … First start anywhere since having surgery on his left elbow about two-and-a-half months ago. Twice a runner-up (2011, 2016). No worse than T13 in seven trips. Colin Montgomerie … Tied for fifth in his debut here in 2015. Finished a respective 2nd-3rd-2nd on the season money list since 2013. Mark O’Meara … Runner-up in 2015 is one of four top 10s since 2011. Kenny Perry … Two top 10s in five tries. Placed T3 at last week’s Diamond Resorts Invitational. Vijay Singh … Shared eighth in debut here last year. This is just his 13th career start on the PGA TOUR Champions and he’s winless. He’ll turn 54 on Feb. 22. David Toms … Making his PGA TOUR Champions debut. Duffy Waldorf … Defending champion. Went bogey-free for the tournament.
Big wins for Justin Thomas, proud moments for his fatherBig wins for Justin Thomas, proud moments for his father
HONOLULU — Justin Thomas used to call his father when he arrived at junior tournaments, and the conversation almost always started the same way. “What’s the number?” The father wasn’t asking what score it would take to win, the length of the course or even the entry fee. The number in question was how many greens his son would be able to reach in regulation, and not just on the par 4s. “I was guaranteed to hit driver into at least one par 3,” Thomas said. Mike Thomas was in the gallery along the ninth fairway at Waialae Country Club when his 23-year-old son nearly left his feet while launching a 358-yard drive, setting up a wedge into the par 5. It was only his seventh-longest drive during his time in paradise. This Aloha State adventure was the best two weeks of Thomas’ career. He joined Ernie Els as the only players to sweep the Hawaii swing and became the first player since Tiger Woods in 2009 to win by at least three shots in consecutive weeks on the PGA TOUR. Thomas rose to No. 8 in the world and he is the third-ranked American behind Dustin Johnson (No. 3) and Jordan Spieth (No. 5). “Unforgettable,” Thomas said of the last two weeks. That goes for his parents, too, mainly because they had yet to see him win on the PGA TOUR. His other two victories were in Malaysia, so Mike and Jani Thomas had to stay up until the early morning hours to watch him beat Adam Scott one year, Hideki Matsuyama the next. Watching in person with an ocean view is better. Mike Thomas has been the head pro at Harmony Landing outside Louisville, Kentucky, for the last 28 years, and golf is really all his son has ever known. Justin was not even 2 when his father gave him a cut-down driver with a wooden head to whack golf balls around the house and at Harmony Landing. As a toddler, when the boy wanted to play he would tell his mother, “Bag of balls, bag of balls.” But the boy fell in love with golf by himself. “I made sure there was no formal instruction until he asked for it,” Mike Thomas said. “There were a lot more little lessons than big lessons.” Part of the reason is that he had a golf shop to run, members to serve and lessons to give. A larger part was that Mike Thomas had seen too many kids pushed too hard and he didn’t want to be that parent. “I decided that I wanted to be his best friend more than his father,” he said. “There were times I had to get on him as a parent. But mostly we had just had a lot of fun.” Even now, when he takes time away from Harmony Landing to watch his son on tour, he stands quietly behind Thomas and caddie Jimmy Johnson without saying a word unless his son asks him to shoot video of a swing with his phone. They will look at it together. Mike Thomas tends to wait to see if his son can figure it out first. His fondest memories are not the tournaments he won as a junior, but the time they spent on the golf course in twilight hours, sometimes playing nine holes, other times creating games by seeing who could throw a golf ball closest to the pin. Golf has been in the family for three generations. Paul Thomas was the longtime club pro at Zanesville Country Club in Ohio who qualified for the 1962 U.S. Open at Oakmont. Mike Thomas played at Morehead State and competed in college against Kenny Perry, but his aspirations of playing the PGA Tour didn’t last long. He spent one year on the mini-tours before working fulltime as a PGA professional. He took three jobs, in Ohio and Pittsburgh, before moving to Kentucky. Justin was in elementary school, still swinging away, when his father began a tradition of keeping golf balls from every tournament he won. There were 128 balls at Harmony Landing when they left for Hawaii. The father headed home with five more golf balls — and he wanted six. Two were from the victories at the SBS Tournament of Champions and the Sony Open, bringing the victory count to 130. A special display will hold the golf ball that Thomas rolled in from 15 feet for eagle on the final hole of his opening round for a 59. Another ball is from the 36-hole scoring record (123) he set on Friday, and the fifth is from the 72-hole record (253) Thomas set Sunday. “I wanted the one after Saturday for the 54-hole record,” Mike Thomas said with a laugh. “But Justin said that wasn’t a record, it was only a tie.” It’s tempting to think back to the toddler who said “Bag of balls” the way most kids ask for candy, and see where his son is now. But only the stage has changed. “The feeling is the same,” Mike Thomas said. “I know this is the PGA TOUR, but when he had a chance to win as an 8-year-old at a U.S. Kids event, it was like, `This is really cool.’ … As a parent, I’m just glad he’s healthy, I’m glad he’s safe and I’m glad he’s doing what he wants to do. What else could any parent want?”
Trevor Plouffe finalizes $5.25M, 1-year deal with A’s (Sports Betting News)Trevor Plouffe finalizes $5.25M, 1-year deal with A’s (Sports Betting News)
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Infielder Trevor Plouffe has finalized a $5.25 million, one-year contract with the Oakland Athletics and is expected to be the primary third baseman if he can stay healthy.
Abdul-Jabbar getting UCLA love after prez honorAbdul-Jabbar getting UCLA love after prez honor
Abdul-Jabbar getting UCLA love after prez honor
Beckham tops NFLer on Twitter, Kaepernick 49th (Sports Betting News)Beckham tops NFLer on Twitter, Kaepernick 49th (Sports Betting News)
NEW YORK (AP) — Giants receiver Odell Beckham Jr. , had the most engagement on Twitter among NFL players this season, while Colin Kaepernick was only a surprising 49th.
NAPA sponsoring Rossi’s back-to-back Indy bidNAPA sponsoring Rossi’s back-to-back Indy bid
NAPA sponsoring Rossi’s back-to-back Indy bid