Power Rankings: Workday Charity OpenPower Rankings: Workday Charity Open
Opportunity is a by-product of properly managing adversity. The Workday Charity Open is evidence. When the PGA TOUR season was rescheduled due to the hiatus, the John Deere Classic remained positioned in this slot. However, when it became clear in late May that the state of Illinois would not be ready to host the annual stop near the Quad Cities, an opening that demanded short-range planning emerged. Some two weeks later, it was announced that Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio, would host a fortnight of official PGA TOUR action. It begins with the Workday Charity Open and concludes with the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide. The John Deere Classic plans to return in 2021. Scroll beneath the projected contenders of the opener at Jack Nicklaus’ home course, how it sets up for a full field of 156 and more. RELATED: The First Look | Inside the Field POWER RANKINGS: WORKDAY CHARITY OPEN Jordan Spieth, Jason Day, Patrick Reed, Collin Morikawa and Phil Mickelson will be among the notables reviewed in Tuesday’s Fantasy Insider. Neither tournament at Muirfield Village will host fans, but those who compete in both will be tackling different tests. How the club and tournament officials pull it off will be fascinating. Logically, it’s easier to transition from easy to hard in such a short period of time. In fact, it’s probably the only sequence that can allow it at this level of the sport. Muirfield Village’s primary rough will begin at three-and-a-half inches for the Workday. It could exceed four inches when the 120-man field for the traditional invitational convenes for the Memorial. The bentgrass greens, which normally are prepped to run at a PGA TOUR-long 13 feet-plus on the Stimpmeter for the Memorial are expected to range in the vicinity of just 11 feet for the Workday. While the average square footage (5,000) cannot change in one week, nor can the undulations on them, for golfers who will be pegging it in both, slicker surfaces could present at least one day of adjustment in the nightcap of the doubleheader. A read on a putt this week likely will be different on the same putt next week. Slower greens also introduce fresh hole locations not possible during the Memorial. Tee to green, the challenge essentially is the same. Muirfield Village allows long hitters room to move it. With slower greens this week, guys should be paid off to play aggressively, so the bunters among them will be keen to find fairways. That’s never is a problem on this track, but they still probably don’t mind that Rocket Mortgage Classic champion Bryson DeChambeau is taking his first week off of the restart. (DeChambeau won the Memorial in 2018.) Returnees will see newly positioned fairway bunkers on six holes and three new tees. For the Workday, the par-3 eighth, par-5 11th and par-5 15th holes will tip at an aggregate 64 yards longer than what once was familiar. The stock par 72 can stretch to 7,456 yards, but it’s unlikely to reach that maximum during any round, instead leaving some of the length for the Memorial. After a toasty opener with a daytime high in the mid-90s, a slight but gradual cooling will extend into the weekend. The tradeoff is an elevated threat for rain and storms every day. Wind also could freshen with the energy. If weather becomes an issue, the good news for those with plans to play Memorial is that they already will have traveled to the next tournament. ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE PGATOUR.COM’s Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton recaps and previews every tournament from numerous angles. Look for his following contributions as scheduled. MONDAY: Rookie Ranking, Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Medical Extensions, Power Rankings TUESDAY*: Sleepers, Fantasy Insider * – Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, which also publishes on Tuesday.
