Saturday storylines for PGA Championship

Chad Campbell, who tested positive following a pre-tournament screening for the Rocket Mortgage Classic, said he is asymptomatic and feels “physically well.”

Click here to read the full article…

FORT WORTH, Texas — The quiet of Colonial made Xander Schauffele feel as though he were back home in San Diego playing with his friends. In this case, his buddies happen to be some of the biggest stars in golf. Schauffele made a 12-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole Saturday to break out of a six-way share of the lead with a 4-under 66, giving him one-shot lead over an all-star cast going into a final round of the Charles Schwab Challenge. RELATED: Leaderboard | ‘Who’s who’ leaderboard heading into weekend at Colonial Jordan Spieth took only 10 putts on the front nine and had the lead until he didn’t hit the 15th green from 81 yards away, leading to bogey. He had a 68 and was in a chasing pack that featured Justin Thomas, U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland, Collin Morikawa and Branden Grace. The PGA TOUR returned after three months because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it didn’t take long to show its fan base just what it was missing. Fourteen players were separated by three shots, including Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose and Patrick Reed, who made the cut with one shot to spare and shot 63 to give him a chance. Golf fans should be in for a treat — in front of the TV, anyway. Colonial is the first of five tournaments in the return to golf that doesn’t allow spectators. Players have had three days to adjust to the lack of sound. Sunday is different, everyone trying to generate their own momentum without the energy typically delivered from outside the ropes. Schauffele was at 13-under 197. Woodland birdied his last two holes for a 66 and will play with his Presidents Cup teammate in the final group. Right behind will be Thomas, the former PGA champion and world No. 1, who went 11 holes without making a birdie in good scoring condition until two over the final five holes in a 66 that put him right in the mix. He played alongside Grace, who also had a 66. Spieth passed a big test. Stuck in a slump, he had five tournaments last season when he started with two rounds in the 60s and was left behind when he couldn’t break par on Saturday. There were a few anxious moments for him, such as an iron off the fifth tee that would have finished on the practice range if not for a fence in place for the tournament. He got up-and-down from short of the green to escape with birdie. His next tee shot was right and banged off a cart — one the loudest sounds of the day — leaving him blocked by a tree. He punched it low into a back bunker and saved par. But he didn’t make a birdie over the final nine holes, and the 15th cost him when his lob wedge came up short. No matter. He was one off the lead, and his tie for second is his best 54-hole position since the Colonial last year. He shot 72 in the final round and tied for eighth. Harold Varner III, still looking for his first PGA TOUR victory, started with a one-shot lead and birdied the opening hole. That was his last birdie. Varner couldn’t get putts to fall, including two birdie chances inside 8 feet toward the end. He had to settle for a 70, but was still only two shots behind. Looking up at Schauffele is not the issue. It’s looking around at everyone else. McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau, were among the players who went into Sunday with a realistic chance. The field was the strongest Colonial has seen, not surprising because so many players stuck at home for the last three months were eager for competition. And this week has made clear that so many of them came to play.

Click here to read the full article…

If you’ve been reading regularly, you’ve been treated to numerous victories among us experts. Well, all but Jonathan and I have picked off a win in the last two months, so the success is not comprehensive. Ben bagged Brooks Koepka’s title defense at the U.S. Open. Both Sean and Tom were on Bubba Watson at the Travelers Championship. Four weeks later, Sean connected again, this time with Francesco Molinari at The Open Championship. Last, and least as it pertains to FedExCup points earned, after a serendipitous pivot from Beau Hossler, who withdrew early in the week of the Barracuda Championship, Mark hoisted hardware with Andrew Putnam as his charge in Reno. For a little league of six, that’s a sporty run, but it’s even more gratifying (for them) because all occurred rather deep into the season even if guys like Koepka, Watson and Molinari were planned saves. The PGA Championship is event No. 43 of 2017-18, so only six remain. Yet, because PGA TOUR Fantasy One & Done presented by SERVPRO uses FedExCup points to measure performance, all gamers are still very much mathematically alive. It’s the beauty of this format, whereas gamers way of the pace at this point in an earnings-based model check out. And believe me, I’m relying on the possibilities in the FedExCup Playoffs in which points are quadrupled. Even if you’re front-running, deciding which golfer gets the call at Bellerive Country Club should be incumbent on who you’re slotting for the final four events. The stymie could be more valuable than having the winner of the season’s final major, so review the available golfers for your nearest pursuers and draw a treasure map. I’m all-in on Brooks Koepka this week. He’s an obvious selection for the PGA, but he also frees me to save the likes of Jason Day for the Dell Technologies Championship and Justin Rose for the TOUR Championship. Others available to me include Patrick Reed, Louis Oosthuizen, Patrick Cantlay, Tommy Fleetwood, Xander Schauffele and Branden Grace. They will help plug the holes in between. Just as I’m the last to use Koepka, I’m the only expert who has yet to burn both Rose and Fleetwood, so the objective is to maximize their starts. Figure out who lines up that way for you. In a vacuum, defending champion Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy and Tony Finau all make sense in addition to Koepka, Rose and Day this week. Assuming that you can handle that decision without further endorsement, the focus shifts to notables to avoid for similar reasons. Jordan Spieth is the first to holster for the Playoffs. He’d line up wonderfully for East Lake, but he has to get there first. If he plays well enough to advance, then that will mean contending somewhere else along the way. Consider opening the Playoffs with the 25-year-old at The Ridgewood Country Club, but remember my Fantasy Rule No. 3: Remain fluid. Rickie Fowler presents strongly almost every time he plays, and this week is no different, so he caters to all philosophies. Start or save, neither trumps the other. Patrick Reed falls into a similar classification. Meanwhile, he’s a former winner of the Wyndham Championship (2013), which is included in his Future Possibilities, but we can’t rely on an appearance there for multiple reasons, not the least of which is that the PGA Championship is his fifth straight start worldwide, just like last year when he took a pass on the Wyndham. Two-man gamers need to stick with the chalk, although you’re operating with dust by now. Consider Thorbjørn Olesen, Alex Noren, Cantlay and Grace. FUTURE POSSIBILITIES NOTE: Select golfers committed to the tournament are listed alphabetically. Future tournaments are sorted chronologically and reflect previous success on the courses on which the tournaments will be held in 2017-18. The numerical values in parentheses represent the order of relative confidence of where to use each golfer if multiple sites are listed (e.g. 1 for strongest, 2 for next-strongest and so on). To present weighted confidence in real time, numerical values will not change all season no matter how many tournament remain listed for each golfer. All are pending golfer commitment. Paul Casey … Dell Technologies (2); TOUR Championship (3) Kevin Chappell … Dell Technologies (3) Jason Day … PGA Championship (1); THE NORTHERN TRUST (8); Dell Technologies (5) Jason Dufner … Wyndham (6); TOUR Championship (7) Rickie Fowler … THE NORTHERN TRUST (10); Dell Technologies (6) Sergio Garcia … TOUR Championship (4) Bill Haas … Wyndham (2) Billy Horschel … TOUR Championship (4) Dustin Johnson … PGA Championship (9); Dell Technologies (11); TOUR Championship (6) Zach Johnson … TOUR Championship (8) Kevin Kisner … Wyndham (6) Russell Knox … Dell Technologies (7) Brooks Koepka … PGA Championship (2) Matt Kuchar … THE NORTHERN TRUST (9) Rory McIlroy … Dell Technologies (5); TOUR Championship (3) Ryan Moore … TOUR Championship (6) Kevin Na … Wyndham (3); THE NORTHERN TRUST (11) Louis Oosthuizen … PGA Championship (4); Dell Technologies (3) Patrick Reed … PGA Championship (8); Wyndham (7); THE NORTHERN TRUST (9); Dell Technologies (2) Justin Rose … WGC-Bridgestone (7); TOUR Championship (2) Adam Scott … Dell Technologies (9); TOUR Championship (6) Webb Simpson … Wyndham (1) Brandt Snedeker … Wyndham (4) Jordan Spieth … TOUR Championship (4) Henrik Stenson … PGA Championship (7); Wyndham (8; defending); Dell Technologies (9); TOUR Championship (2) Justin Thomas … Dell Technologies (6; defending); TOUR Championship (3) Jimmy Walker … Dell Technologies (7) Bubba Watson … TOUR Championship (4)

Click here to read the full article…