After Olympics, golf in Rio has its growing pains

Viktor Hovland's 12-foot birdie putt to win the Mayakoba Golf Classic presented by UNIFIN, the 12th and final event of the fall, moved him up to third in the FedExCup and put a bow on a wildly entertaining fall season. The fall also provided a lot of answers. We know whose biohacking has worked. (Take a bow, Bryson DeChambeau.) We know who won't stop knocking on the door. (Make room for Maui-bound Stewart Cink, Brian Gay, Jason Kokrak, Martin Laird, Carlos Ortiz, Robert Streb and - deep breath - Hudson Swafford.) We were entertained, again, by Tiger and Phil. Woods made a career-high 10 at the 12th hole at the Masters - then erased most of that mess with five birdies in his last six holes. Mickelson won the Dominion Energy Charity Classic for his second victory in as many starts on PGA TOUR Champions, then carried Charles Barkley on his back for 18 holes. We saw three new courses, with Houston's iconic Memorial Park in it for the long haul. THE CJ CUP @ SHADOW CREEK and ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP @ SHERWOOD were stopgaps. Fittingly, there were new course records at all three. Xander Schauffele shot 8-under 64 at Shadow Creek; Richy Werenski 11-under 61 at Sherwood; Hideki Matsuyama 7-under 63 at Memorial Park. (Justin Thomas also shot 5-under 65 at the Winged Foot U.S. Open.) None of them won. Harry Higgs (Safeway Open), Scott Harrington (Sanderson Farms Championship) and Brendan Steele (Mayakoba Golf Classic) each made an albatross. None of them won, either. Korn Ferry Tour pro Will Zalatoris made a hole-in-one at the U.S. Open at Winged Foot, then earned Special Temporary Membership on TOUR, a different sort of victory. We witnessed brawn (DeChambeau at the U.S. Open; Dustin Johnson at the Masters), and brains (three 40-something winners). We saw a salute to the golden oldies (Fred Funk, 64, made the cut at the Bermuda Championship despite averaging less than 245 yards off the tee). Ageless Bernhard Langer, 63, became the oldest to make the Masters cut. Playing with DeChambeau on Sunday at Augusta, the PGA TOUR Champions star hit hybrids and 3-woods into most of the par 4s; DeChambeau, meanwhile, scraped the clouds with his tee shots and drove the third green. And Bernie beat Bryson 71-73. Surprising? Certainly. The fall was that. Cink, 47, won the Safeway Open, breaking a win drought of 4,074 days since the 2009 Open Championship. He is currently fourth in the FedExCup. Last season he was 144th. Gay, 48, won the Bermuda Championship for his first title in over seven years. Kokrak made 26 birdies and won THE CJ CUP @ SHADOW CREEK for his first win at 35. Because it's like they say: If at first you don't succeed, wait until your 233rd career start. Laird won a playoff over Austin Cook and Matthew Wolff at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, his first trophy since the 2013 Valero Texas Open. Swafford (Corales Punta Cana Resort & Club Championship) hadn't won since the 2017 The American Express, and Sergio Garcia, 40, putted with his eyes wide shut to steady his stroke at the Sanderson Farms Championship. It was his first victory on TOUR since the 2017 Masters, and he pointed to the sky and blinked back tears while remembering his two uncles who had died from the coronavirus. "It's hard," Garcia said, which also described so much of 2020. Ortiz broke through at the Vivint Houston Open in his 118th career TOUR start, marking his first victory of any kind since his three-win season on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2014. Then he broke down. Streb won The RSM Classic six years after winning the 2014 RSM, a stretch of 165 starts. The fall wasn't entirely about winning; Matthew Wolff was loading up on seconds long before Thanksgiving. The runner-up to DeChambeau at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, Wolff was runner-up to DeChambeau again at the U.S. Open, and in his very next start lost a playoff (Laird, Austin Cook) to finish T2 at the Shriners. Yep, three near-misses in 10 starts. He's ninth in the FedExCup. That's a solid fall; Wolff might even make the season-ending TOUR Championship at East Lake, Sept. 2-5, 2021. If he does, he'll likely run into No. 1 Johnson. Wait. Him again? Yep, meet the new boss, same as the old boss. The winner of last season's points race is in pole position yet again. That's because Johnson shot 20 under at Augusta to break the Masters scoring record (Tiger Woods, Jordan Spieth) by two. He also finished T2 at the Vivint Houston Open, and T6 at the U.S. Open. Any questions? Johnson is 252 points ahead of No. 2 DeChambeau, who along with Mickelson and Adam Scott experimented with extra-long driver shafts. Thomas revealed a grudge match with Charlie Woods, 11, as Justin and dad Mike, and Tiger and son Charlie, anticipate their first-ever appearance at the PNC Championship in Orlando later this month. Said Thomas, "We’ll have that like inner tournament within a tournament." That was the fall - a tournament within a tournament. Because as great as it was, it was just a taste of 2021, when Dustin and Justin, Viktor and Xander, will return with the rest of them. Happy holidays and see you in Maui for the Sentry Tournament of Champions, Jan. 7-10.

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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 Wells Fargo Championship 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? Click here to join the PGA TOUR Fan Council for the chance to have your picks selected for an upcoming tournament. SEASON SEGMENT

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PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Rickie Fowler takes being called the best player without a major championship as a compliment and would rather be remembered for what he does off the golf course than on it. But don’t mistake that for a lack of drive to win on the biggest stages. Fowler opened the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach with an impressive 5-under 66 to tie for the early wave lead with Louis Oosthuizen and Xander Schauffele on Thursday, putting his resume back in the spotlight. The uber popular now 30-year-old has five PGA TOUR wins, including the 2015 PLAYERS Championship, but has had to deal with multiple near misses in major championships. This has seen some claim he may have underachieved. Coming into the 119th U.S. Open Fowler had 10 top-10s in majors to his name without saluting. In 2014 he was inside the top-5 of all four majors. Lately he’s now 20-under in opening rounds at majors since 2017, the best of any player. But so far no trophies. He claims he’s not worried. “Obviously there’s a lot of great players that haven’t won a major. It’s not necessarily something I think about or worry about. I know that when the time is right, it’s going to happen,â€� Fowler said entering the week. “And I’ve been in the position to have a chance and right there in the mix come Sunday. I don’t necessarily put my life on it, looking at what success is. If I don’t win a major, that’s not going to necessarily define me. Do I want to win a major? Yes. I would love to and then knock off some more after that. But it’s not going to define who I am.â€� Fowler is acutely aware Phil Mickelson won his first major in his 30s. Jason Day had nine top-10s in majors before his first win. The examples are everywhere of good players taking time. And the near misses have provided valuable experience as he heads into the next three rounds. He claims he now has a great level of comfort with the nerves. And he’s aware of all the things that can conspire against you. Staying in the moment is important, staying detailed also. If something in the process is off, he will back off and start again. “That gets more and more important, especially when you get to Saturday, Sunday, and things start to speed up,â€� he says. “If you’re walking fast it kind of falls into your swing so the more I can stay at the same pace, breathing the same… It’s a lot easier said than done.â€� Fowler certainly looked calm throughout Thursday’s round hitting 13 of 14 fairways and 15 of 18 greens. He made it look easy at times. “You don’t have to do anything special in majors. It’s just being disciplined and executing the shot that’s at hand,â€� Fowler adds. “It would be nice to see if we can top that, if not just keeping matching it.â€�

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