Home cooking for Cink in Memphis

Tiger Woods tees off at 2:35 p.m. ET in the final round of the PGA Championship on Sunday. Woods starts his final round at 8 under, four shots back of leader Brooks Koepka.  Follow along with hole-by-hole updates of Tiger’s final round here: No. 1 | Par 4 | 425 yards Shot 1: 

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With the Power Rankings for the TOUR Championship slotting all 30 qualifiers in pursuit of the 14th FedExCup title, this weekly Fantasy Insider column is predictably abridged. But that's not to say that it's without valuable and timely information. After all, the 2020-21 season begins in nine sleeps with the Safeway Open on Thursday, Sept. 9. First, the bad news. I will not be writing a full-membership fantasy ranking. Given that membership isn't turning over and with only two days in between seasons, the energy and focus is devoted elsewhere. Ever since the wraparound season was introduced in 2013, I've joked that it's stressed fantasy planning due to tight scheduling, but this year's squeeze is unprecedented. In place of the ranking will be a season primer that will read a lot like the customary introduction to the annual ranking. It'll be an evergreen guide. More on its timing below. RELATED: Power Rankings | Expert Picks | Eight things to know about East Lake While membership isn't changing, there is movement in the ranks. The next update to the Korn Ferry Tour graduate reshuffle page will list the opening order of the golfers who didn't qualify for the FedExCup Playoffs and who don't have status via a victory. Because there are no KFT grads in 2020-21, the title of the page will change. That'll be your cue for what's new if you don't already look at the date at the top. Medical Extensions will be updated at the same time as the Reshuffle. Plan on both being ready by Monday. Qualifiers will remain as fluid as it's ever been as the governing bodies around the world continue to adapt to the pandemic and how it influences their schedules. If you draft with an emphasis on who is exempt into the events included on that page, plan on no worse than the baseline constructs of how those fields have been assembled in recent memory. Anything unusual will be considered a bonus. The Rookie Ranking will be taking on a different form in 2020-21. Because there won't be any rookies to start the season, there won't be anything to rank. However, in due time, non-members will begin totaling the equivalent of FedExCup points in pursuit of Special Temporary Membership. (The target remains 288.035 points. That's a holdover from the 2018-19 season because 2019-20 was compressed.) Non-members will include the top 10 in Korn Ferry Tour points at the conclusion of the KFT Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance as they will have exemptions into all additional events in 2020-21. All three-time winners on the combined 2020-21 KFT season also will earn an automatic promotion to the PGA TOUR and could qualify as a rookie. With so many moving parts, Rookie Ranking will demand attention, just in a different way. With the Monday finish of the TOUR Championship, my preview material for the Safeway Open will slide back a day. So, the Power Rankings will publish on Tuesday, as will the season primer referenced above. Sleepers, Expert Picks and the Fantasy Insider will publish on Wednesday. We'll return to the regular schedule in advance of the U.S. Open the following week. Speaking of primers, this is a great time to reacquaint yourself with the fantasy primer for the restart of this season. It published in early June, but it can serve as a bridge into next week's primer and should help with some direction for draft leaguers. Before all of that, of course, there's the little matter of settling fantasy league championships at East Lake. Round scoring in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf isn't influenced by the staggered start of the TOUR Championship, but the bonus points earned will be based on actual finish in the tournament, not by actual score over 72 holes. As I reminded gamers in this space two weeks ago and as the old One & Done determined values for the 2019 TOUR Championship, because no FedExCup points are up for grabs in the finale, bonus points in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf will follow the same breakdown used at THE NORTHERN TRUST and the BMW Championship. So, the winner will yield 150 bonus points as a starter for his owners in the final round. PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf My roster for the TOUR Championship (in alphabetical order): Bryson DeChambeau Dustin Johnson Jon Rahm Xander Schauffele Webb Simpson Justin Thomas You'll find my starters in Expert Picks. Others to consider for each category (in alphabetical order): Scoring: Daniel Berger; Tony Finau; Tyrrell Hatton; Scottie Scheffler Driving: Daniel Berger; Tyrrell Hatton; Hideki Matsuyama; Collin Morikawa; Scottie Scheffler RETURNING TO COMPETITION Martin Laird ... Scheduled to tee it up at the Korn Ferry Tour's Lincoln Land Championship presented by LRS. He was among the internationals who didn't return to the PGA TOUR this summer. Finished 182nd in the FedExCup, but he'll keep his fully exempt status due to the eligibility adjustments announced during the hiatus. Kelly Kraft ... Also committed to the KFT event in Springfield, Illinois. This constitutes his first sanctioned start since he underwent surgery on his left hip (labrum, impingement) on Sept. 26, 2019. When he returns to the PGA TOUR, he'll have a Major Medical Extension with a full season's slate of 23 starts. NOTABLE WDs None. POWER RANKINGS RECAP - BMW CHAMPIONSHIP Power Ranking Golfer Result 1 Dustin Johnson P2 2 Webb Simpson DNP 3 Justin Thomas T25 4 Jon Rahm Win 5 Bryson DeChambeau 50th 6 Daniel Berger T25 7 Collin Morikawa T20 8 Kevin Kisner T25 9 Harris English T40 10 Scottie Scheffler T20 11 Alex Noren T40 12 Xander Schauffele T25 13 Tony Finau 5th 14 Louis Oosthuizen T25 15 Jason Day 64th 16 Viktor Hovland T40 17 Hideki Matsuyama T3 18 Matt Kuchar T59 19 Russell Henley T25 20 Ryan Palmer T40 Wild Card Rory McIlroy T12 SLEEPERS RECAP - BMW CHAMPIONSHIP Golfer Result Corey Conners T33 Matthew Fitzpatrick T6 Mackenzie Hughes T10 Mark Hubbard T51 Matthew Wolff T16 BIRTHDAYS AMONG ACTIVE GOLFERS ON THE PGA TOUR September 1 ... Matthew Fitzpatrick (26) September 2 ... none September 3 ... none September 4 ... none September 5 ... none September 6 ... Brice Garnett (37) September 7 ... none September 8 ... none

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NORTON, Ma. – Put too much pressure on a bubble and it will burst. Keep that in mind if you’re at TPC Boston this week. There is always pressure on the PGA TOUR but the FedExCup Playoffs create a dynamic that allows the players to create their own mental narrative. If you’re at the top of the FedExCup standings you’ve given yourself a buffer. The TOUR Championship is secured. Do you try to conserve energy in the early weeks? Or do you try to create some sort of momentum? Is making it there enough or does the all-important top-5 position drive you harder? Does your desire in the critical moments subconsciously wain at all knowing you’ll still be there next week? If you’re at the bottom of the standings the equation is simple. It’s quite simply go hard or go home. Does this free you up? Does this allow you to play with devil-may-care abandon and see where the chips fall? And then there are the bubble boys… those sitting in the spot where just reasonable golf will “probablyâ€� be enough to advance. But then you never know. If you ask me, this is where the pressure lies. Stuck in between conservatism and aggression. “There really is only pressure on the guy on the bubble. If you are a competitor and you want to be competing and there is a chance that you won’t be there next week then you’ve got pressure on you,â€� Adam Scott says matter of factly. “The rest is an opportunity for everyone. And if you are a positive person then every week you’re out here is an opportunity.â€� Scott moved from 73rd to 40th on the points standings with his T5 finish at THE NORTHERN TRUST, and as a former champion at TPC Boston, he’s looking to surge into the top 30 this week at the Dell Technologies Championship so that he’s not a bubble boy at the BMW Championship. But a Presidents Cup teammate of his is now one of these bubble boys. Louis Oosthuizen sits 69th, leaving him in no man’s land in terms of his mental approach. The top 70 on the points list make it to the BMW Championship while the top 30 move on to the TOUR Championship after play at Aronimink. Of course the South African is looking to play well, knowing things would then take care of themselves, but if he finds himself being too aggressive he could shoot his way out of contention. “Where I am, basically I just have to have a solid week – not really start out going for everything, I don’t think that’s necessary – but what makes it difficult is you don’t really know what’s going on,â€� Oosthuizen says. “It would be nice to see every third hole to sort of know where you stand but you just kind of guess, really, and most of the time you think I need more birdies and to make something happen. “And you’re dealing with guys from the back making it as they freewheel it and they go for it … If things go their way they can get you.â€� One of those guys this week will be local boy Peter Uihlein. He sits 83rd in the FedExCup and knows it’s do or die. “Your mindset is you’ve pretty much got to have a good week. If not you have an extra week off in the offseason. So you pretty much give it your all for four days and see what happens,â€� Uihlein said. “Best case is you get to play one more week, hopefully two. But worst case is you just have an extra week off. “I’d say (the pressure lies with) the guys who are maybe 68, 67, those guys, just thinking in the back of their head, if I just make the cut I’m in kind of thing. I think when you start playing that way, at least I know that in the regular season, if you’re just trying to kind of make the cut you’re always going to be around that line, regardless. “So I think when you have that kind of mindset it definitely makes it a little more difficult. Guys that are in my position, around 80 or so, you’ve got to be a bit more aggressive, you’ve got really nothing to lose.â€� Last week six players played their way in from outside the top 100. Nick Watney, Bronson Burgoon, Jhonattan Vegas, Scott Stallings, Danny Lee and Brian Stuard gave their seasons a stay of execution. Burgoon and Vegas both talked of how they can play their best with their backs against the wall but yet without much expectation. And then what of the guys up top? Dustin Johnson was quizzed on why he doesn’t contemplate taking a playoff event off to rest despite being in position to do so. He saw no benefit in that concept. Justin Thomas sits third on the points list. “I understand how important these Playoffs are,â€� Thomas said. “I’ve kind of thought about it a couple times that you really have to win in the Playoffs. It’s pretty much just plain and simple. You have to win one of these four events.â€� He doesn’t feel freed up at the top because of the format awarding quadruple points. He’s already dropped a spot despite a decent T8 result in the opening week. “It’s never entered my mind to skip a playoff event. I just feel I could come here and play poorly and get 20 points and that’s better than staying at home and missing a cut and not getting any,â€� Thomas adds. “I learned the hard way my rookie year that every point matters and missing the TOUR Championship by whatever, two, three, four points. “These Playoffs are so important and the points are just so amplified that if I was to win one of these first three then I’m a lock to be in the top five going into Atlanta. So to me it’s 100-percent worth that risk.â€� The man who went past him was last week’s winner Bryson DeChambeau. He doesn’t plan to back down now that he’s taken top spot. “Pedal to the metal for me,â€� he said after his victory. “To be able to be No. 1 is fantastic. I think there’s a little bit of pressure, you want to hold that now, just like a four-shot lead.â€� If you’re looking for excitement, the last three holes at TPC Boston are sure to provide it this weekend. A par-3 with a water hazard (16th) into a short par-4 (17th) before a reachable par-5 finishing hole. Those on the bubble will be either looking to press or survive, setting up fascinating golf. Only time will tell if it will burst. BUBBLE BOYS AT DELL TECHNOLOGIES CHAMPIONSHIP 65. Stewart Cink 66. Jason Kokrak 67. Nick Watney 68. Jimmy Walker 69. Louis Oosthuizen 70. Kevin Streelman 71. Tyrrell Hatton 72. C.T. Pan 73. Bronson Burgoon 74. Matt Kuchar 75. Charley Hoffman

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