Style Insider: Fall fashion trendsStyle Insider: Fall fashion trends
Find the latest styles online at the PGA TOUR Superstore
Day: September 24, 2019
Final games aren’t meaningless for AL contendersFinal games aren’t meaningless for AL contenders
The Yankees and Astros are battling for home-field advantage, which may be critical in deciding which team emerges from the American League.
Expert Picks: Safeway OpenExpert Picks: Safeway Open
How it works: Each week, our experts from PGATOUR.COM will make their selections in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf. Each lineup consists of four starters and two bench players that can be rotated after each round. Adding to the challenge is that every golfer can be used only three times per each of four Segments. The first fantasy golf game to utilize live ShotLink data, PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf allows you to see scores update live during competition. Aside from the experts below, Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton breaks down the field at this year’s Safeway Open in his edition of the Power Rankings. For more fantasy, check out Sleepers, Rookie Ranking, Qualifiers and Reshuffle. THINK YOU’RE BETTER THAN OUR EXPERTS? The PGA TOUR Experts league is once again open to the public. You can play our free fantasy game and see how you measure up against our experts below. Joining the league is simple. Just click here to sign up or log in. Once you create your team, click the “Leagues” tab and search for “PGA TOUR Experts.” After that? Pick your players and start talking smack. Want to represent the fans against our experts? SEASON SEGMENT
Vettel took encouragement from fan letters during slumpVettel took encouragement from fan letters during slump
Sebastian Vettel has revealed handwritten letters from supporters gave him extra motivation to earn victory at the Singapore Grand Prix.
NHL team Watchability Tiers for 2019-20NHL team Watchability Tiers for 2019-20
Two teams are must-see this season, while four fall into the bucket of ‘only if nothing else is on.’ See where all 31 rank in our definitive list.
Does F1 need to experiment with reverse-grid qualifying races?Does F1 need to experiment with reverse-grid qualifying races?
ESPN’s panel of F1 journalists discuss the main talking points from the Singapore race weekend.
Brawn explains F1’s thinking behind reverse-grid qualifying racesBrawn explains F1’s thinking behind reverse-grid qualifying races
Formula One’s director of motorsport, Ross Brawn, has responded to criticism over plans to experiment with the format of grand prix weekends in 2020.
DraftKings preview: Safeway OpenDraftKings preview: Safeway Open
The 2019-20 PGA TOUR season continues with this week’s Safeway Open located at Silverado Resort and Spa on the North Course in Napa , California. The field will host a few top-echelon players such as Hideki Matsuyama, Adam Scott and Patrick Cantlay, and also welcome other top athletes playing in the pro-am, such as three-time NBA champion Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors and CBS NFL analyst Tony Romo. Romo also will be competing in the tournament on a sponsor’s exemption, along with notable TOUR pros making their season debuts, such as Phil Mickelson, Francesco Molinari and Collin Morikawa. RELATED: Safeway Open field | Power Rankings The North Course will play as a par 72, measure just south of 7,200 yards and feature poa annua greens. The course wasn’t difficult last season, ranking 29th (out of 49) in scoring relative to par and recording the 10th most birdies of any course in 2019. Focusing on golfers who do well in par 5 scoring average again will be a core statistic when building lineups this week; 45% of all birdies made at the Safeway Open last season came from the par 5s. Another key statistic will be Strokes Gained: Approach the Green. In 2018, four of the top five highest Strokes Gained: Approach the Green golfers also finished inside the top five for the tournament. Last season was more evenly distributed amongst the other key Strokes Gained metrics, but only one player inside the top 10 lost strokes with their irons. Even though the course gave up a healthy number of birdies, it also recorded the 13th most bogeys on any course last season, most likely coming from the course yielding only a 53% fairway in regulation rate, close to 10% less than the TOUR average. Undulating greens, short par 4s and strategically placed bunkers on hole Nos. 4 and 6 will allow the players to hit more driving irons and fairway woods off the tee, leaving longer approach shots into the greens. This course isn’t too long, either, which is why the highest approach shot distribution here is from 200-plus yards as players are electing accuracy over distance. Driving accuracy and accuracy with the approach are going to be paramount this week along with birdies or better gained on the par 5s. Another statistic to focus on will be par 4 scoring on holes measuring 400 to 450 yards. Over the past two years, just three golfers who finished inside the top 10 lost strokes on par 4s measuring between 400 to 450 yards. TOP VALUES Chez Reavie ($9,200) Reavie comes into this week ranking second in fairways hit and inside the top 20 in Strokes Gained: Approach the Green over his past three tournaments. Even though his par-5 scoring isn’t as strong as other top players like Justin Thomas, he makes it up through his ability to get it close, ranking fourth in overall proximity to the hole over his past three tournaments and second at the end of the 2019 season. Reavie has gained strokes off the tee and through approach in four of his past five tournaments and gets to putt on poa this week, his preferred putting surface, where he ranks second in the field over the past 12 rounds. Bronson Burgoon ($8,000) Burgoon has two solid finishes (T19, T6) in the swing season and travels to Napa Valley ranking 26th in Strokes Gained: Approach the Green and 23rd in fairways hit over his past three tournaments. Burgoon finished with a 7-under in his final round at the Sanderson Farms Championship and should be in line for another successful week at the Safeway Open, where he finished inside the top 20 back in 2018. Jhonattan Vegas ($7,300) He doesn’t have the best record at the Safeway Open but is coming in with solid form, ranking eighth in par-5 scoring average, 15th in Strokes Gained: Approach the Green and first in birdies or better gained over his past three tournaments. His short game has not been good, losing strokes around the green in his past six tournaments and losing strokes putting in three of his past five contests. If he can have an average putting week, he should be able to rely on his ball-striking and lean on his off-the-tee game, where he’s gained strokes in 13 straight tournaments coming into this tournament. Robby Shelton ($7,100) Shelton has been solid with his irons, gaining 2.5 strokes at A Military Tribute at the Greenbrier and hitting 83.3% of his fairways at the Sanderson Farms Championship. He was able to grab two wins on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2019 and ranks seventh in birdies or better gained over the past 12 rounds. He should be able to keep the momentum going this week, especially since he’s ranked inside the top five in fairways gained over his past two tournaments. Put your knowledge to the test. Sign up for DraftKings and experience the game inside the game. Writer’s bio: “I’m a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and user (my username is reidtfowler) and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. Although I have expressed my personal view on the games and strategies above, they do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above. I am not an employee of DraftKings and do not have access to any non-public information.â€�
Finding contentment, and a famous swing coach, helped McNealy get on TOURFinding contentment, and a famous swing coach, helped McNealy get on TOUR
Contentment, and one of the game’s greatest coaches, helped Maverick McNealy join his peers on the PGA TOUR after two trying seasons. McNealy turned pro in 2017 after compiling one of the most impressive amateur resumes of the decade. He reached No. 1 in the world amateur ranking and represented the United States on two Walker Cup teams. He won both the Hogan and Haskins awards and shares Stanford’s school wins record with Tiger Woods and Patrick Rodgers. McNealy is still just 23 years old. Even in today’s youth-obsessed game, that’s considered ahead of the curve. This was a unique season on the PGA TOUR, though. Two of his teammates from the 2017 Walker Cup – Cameron Champ and Collin Morikawa – won tournaments. Matthew Wolff did, as well, just weeks after winning the NCAA Championship. McNealy admits that it was tough to not make comparisons and wonder why he didn’t have the same quick success. He knew others certainly were. “I found two gray hairs,� McNealy, who turns 24 in November, joked recently. That wasn’t a remark on his age, however. Struggles with his driver led to a stressful first season on the Korn Ferry Tour. McNealy saw progress after taking his first lesson from Butch Harmon earlier this year. There were changes to McNealy’s mental game, as well. He’s accepted the difference between contentment and complacency. He used to fear the former would lead to the latter. McNealy is playing his third event as a PGA TOUR member at this week’s Safeway Open, not far from his hometown and alma mater. We’ll let him describe his journey to the PGA TOUR in his own words (Note: conversation condensed for space and clarity). PGATOUR.COM: You struggled towards the end of your first season. How bad did it get? Maverick McNealy: “Last year, at the end of the season, I was in a really bad place. I had a really hard time with my ball-striking. I was really stuck underneath and had this really bad right block. It became mental. “There was a week there where I came home to Vegas and I lost two dozen golf balls in a week. I just couldn’t hit a fairway. When it got to Columbus (for the opening event of the Korn Ferry Tour Finals), I told my caddie, ‘I don’t know if I can play. I don’t know if I should keep going.’ He told me, ‘Just get your butt on an airplane.’ It was a heroic effort to make the cut in Columbus. I missed the rest of the cuts in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, but that was kind of the turning point.� PGATOUR.COM: What did you learn from those struggles? McNealy: “I learned that, to be successful in this game, there are going to be highs and lows. You have to be able to get through the lows and there has to be a purpose for the struggle. “There are plenty of bad reasons to play professional golf, and I needed a really good one. I came to two reasons why. One, I think golf tests you in a lot of ways and makes you become a lot better. Golf amplifies all these emotions you feel, so you have to be better. This process of struggling and having to do things better ended up being why I love playing professional golf because it makes you have to improve. I love the negative side of it more now. “The second reason was I like to make a difference and make an impact and do good, and that’s also a driving reason for why I’m playing golf. I started Birdies for Education this year because, in high school, I did my volunteer hours with Curriki. It’s a non-profit for K-12 educational materials, trying to lower the cost of education and make high-quality education available to everybody. We ended up raising $385,000 for Curriki this year.� PGATOUR.COM: Was it difficult to not compare yourself to some of the young players who had quick success on the PGA TOUR in 2019? McNealy: “Definitely. The thing that helped me process all that was being OK with where I am. It’s not complacency. It’s completely different. I have to be content with where I am. That does not affect my drive to improve and get to the next level in any way. “Exceptionalism is an impossible standard to hold yourself to. It’s something to strive for, but by definition it’s an exception. Nowadays we are so obsessed with everything that is an anomaly. With social media and news and everything, we hear about the farthest ends of the bell curve. That’s the hardest thing to compare yourself to. I just said, ‘I am where my feet are. I am where I am, I’m happy with where I am, and I’m going to try as hard as I possibly can to get better and improve.’� PGATOUR.COM: Was last year stressful? McNealy: “One hundred percent. Through my senior year of college and the first year-and-a-half as a pro, I didn’t deal with expectations, self-imposed or external, very well. I was living in the world of have-to instead of want-to.� PGATOUR.COM: When did that change? McNealy: “It was the middle of this year. My whole life, I’ve felt pressure to be exceptional. I’ve had so many amazing opportunities and such great advantages that I have to do something with them. If I’m in school, I have to get As. If I’m in the business world, I have to be a world-beater. If I’m in golf, I have to do something special. I said to myself, ‘I’m 23 years old and in my second season on the Korn Ferry Tour and in the worst case I’ll be in my third season next year. That’s pretty good.’� PGATOUR.COM: You’re very introspective. What are some ways you analyze your game? McNealy: “I write down the details of every shot I hit in my pin sheet. I can go back to any pin sheet – which I save and scan and have them all stored – and I’ll be able to remember every shot I’ve hit at every golf course. “And I write down an overview of how the day went. How my warm-up was, how I was feeling, how the round went, what I did well, what I struggled with, any feels I was thinking of, anything that helped me play a certain shot, anything about the golf course that I found noteworthy and what I worked on after the round. I have that all logged for every tournament. I like to answer the question, ‘Why?’� PGATOUR.COM: Your girlfriend, LPGA player Danielle Kang, helped you get connected with Butch Harmon. How did that come about? McNealy: “Danielle told me, ‘By the way, Butch mentioned that if you ever wanted to come in and see him, he’d take a look.’ I said, ‘Oh, really? He would?’ I went and saw him and three golf balls in he said he knew what I was doing. “Honored and humbled are two very overused words, but honestly I am that I get to work with him. It’s an incredible opportunity to learn from one of, if not the greatest, golf minds of the last 50 years. It’s pretty cool. I’m just going to try to learn as much as I can from him and be a sponge and work really, really hard. PGATOUR.COM: What did Butch recognize in your swing? McNealy: “Butch makes everything really, really simple. He helped me to de-clutter. I was stuck between feels. I had a different feel every day. Basically, I was backing up. The upper-body was moving back and the club was moving forward. That brought in a two-way miss. I’d miss it left because I was afraid of blocking it right. “He said three things: On the backswing, load right. Go left on the downswing, and stand a bit taller with the driver. Three days in, I said, ‘Wow, this is the first time I’ve worked on the same thing for three days and it’s gotten better all three days and it’s felt better every single day.�
Stock Watch: Latin American golfers on the riseStock Watch: Latin American golfers on the rise
The last two PGA Tour winners have come from Chile (Joaquin Niemann) and Colombia (Sebastian Munoz), a good sign for golf in that hemisphere.