Photos: Hero World Challenge previews

Our experts weighed in with a range of choices, from those looking to end droughts to those trying to grab that elusive first major title.

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Not quite a year after a chance encounter on “Call of Duty,� Harold Varner III finally met gamer pal Arturo at the Mayakoba Golf Classic on Tuesday. Carlos Ortiz, one of seven players representing Mexico here, and Preston Lyon, Varner’s childhood friend and agent – both of whom also know Arturo through the game – were also on site. They’ve spent hundreds, maybe thousands of hours together, but this was the first time they had met in person. “I can’t believe this is happening,� said Arturo, a 22-year-old college student from Mexico, smiling through his braces. He wore jeans and a red Tommy Hilfiger sweater and admitted to being too nervous to have slept much the night before. Varner, 29, giggled like a kid at Christmas. Ortiz, a married father of two whose gaming has taken a back seat to family time, grinned and shook his head at the improbability of it all. The PGA TOUR is full of golfers lending a hand, oftentimes prioritizing the human connection above even wins and losses. As Varner put it at the BMW Championship last summer, “What’s going to matter is how we affected the people in our community and who we reached out to.� He and Arturo hugged on the practice green at El Camaleon Golf Club on Tuesday. Then came Mexico’s Ortiz. They played the video game that afternoon, and Arturo caddied for Varner in the rain-delayed pro-am Wednesday. Oh, and he’s also staying with Varner all week. All parties remain amazed at how this developed. At the start of this year, Varner and Lyon, new to “Call of Duty,� in which gamers play on squads of four, joined Jake Buchanan, a professional baseball player and another friend from their hometown of Gastonia, North Carolina.   “We needed a fourth,� Lyon said, “and ended up with Arturo.� Buchanan got ejected due to a network error, and Lyon and Varner decided to leave the game but changed their minds when they realized the kid they’d been grouped with was very, very good. “I’ve played since 2012,� Arturo said with a shrug. “I was 14 or 15.� Arturo was intrigued by his new friends, even if they weren’t as good, and mentioned them to a bilingual gamer friend named Jorge Chávez, a 31-year-old loan processor in Phoenix, Arizona. “I got home, and they’d just signed off,� Chávez said in a phone interview. “Arturo said, ‘Hey, man, I just played with a group of guys.’ He thought they were baseball players.� Soon, they formed a new four-man team: Varner, Lyon, Chávez (who translated) and Arturo. “It evolved,� Lyon said. “Arturo kind of warmed up, he started trying to speak English, which – he speaks perfect English. I think he and Harold have a lot of similarities in the way they grew up. Both come from good parents, and maybe didn’t have as much but kept a positive mindset. Arturo is in school to be an engineer; he’s got goals just like Harold had goals.� Ortiz soon began to join in, and Arturo learned that he was playing with golfers, not baseball players. He asked if Ortiz and Varner were rich. Could they, for example, order anything they wanted at restaurants? They said they could … and then contemplated the nature of the question. Sensing Arturo’s tenuous financial situation, they bought Arturo new gaming equipment and sent it to him, which was far more of a logistical challenge than a financial one. The relationship deepened in April, when on Arturo’s 22nd birthday his father had a heart attack. The youngest of four, Arturo went to the hospital to be with his dad, and temporarily withdrew from the game. For a few days, his gaming friends didn’t know where he’d gone. And then they did. “On the second day in the hospital, Harold instant-messaged me,� Arturo said. “‘Hey, bro, you good?’ I said, ‘No, I’m good.’ Because I thought I was. I never thought  …� His father spent five days in intensive care before dying at 59. “It was heartbreaking,� Lyon said. “It was tough to see it all go down.� Then, a further complication: Due to a mistake on the death certificate, his father being listed as single, Arturo’s mother couldn’t be transferred vital pension money. He asked Lyon for permission to sell the new gaming equipment to pay for funeral expenses. Lyon said not to do that and sent $800, enough to for Arturo’s family to get by while the paperwork was sorted out. “It became the thing to do right now; who cares if we’ve never seen him?� Lyon said. “That’s the way Harold is; it’s easy to do things like this and impact people. That’s how we grew up. It became a little bit bigger than ourselves; bigger than a video game. It circled back to humanity.� They made plans to meet at Mayakoba, where Arturo, who is beyond grateful, gave the golfers a gift of foods and other items from his hometown. They also gave each other the needle, like they do when they’re wearing headsets and playing the game. Arturo razzed Ortiz for never being able to play now that he has two kids; Varner jokingly complained that school is taking too much of Arturo’s time; Arturo playfully noted Varner’s physique (stout) and hairline (receding). “It’s hard to believe this,� Arturo said. “Because from one match playing with Harold, I am here. I’m a guy who was playing ‘Call of Duty.’ Now I’m here. I love Harold.� He pronounces it “Gerald,� and sometimes searches for the right words in English, but he’s made big strides at learning the language. He’s in his second year of college and aims to go to work for his family just as soon as he completes his architectural engineering degree. Ortiz’s father, who has a construction business, has said he’ll help him get a job right now. “Everyone is like, ‘If you come from here, you have this much percentage chance of making it,’� Varner said. “I don’t care what your percentage is; I just want to give you a chance.�     He, Lyon and Ortiz continue to help Arturo any way they can, even funding his nominal gaming dues (as low as $35 to re-up), which would not be quite so nominal for him. “I think we’ve learned more about life from him,� Ortiz said, “than he has from us. We want to help him. We want to see him grow.� Added Varner, “What’s cool is whenever he makes it, he’s gonna help someone else.� More than striving for trophies, that’s just the Varner way. You might even say it’s his call of duty.

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The final regular season event of the 2021-2022 PGA TOUR schedule lands at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, North Carolina, for the Wyndham Championship. RELATED: Expert Picks | Power Rankings The final 125 places on the FedExCup Playoffs Eligibility Points List will be determined after 72 holes this weekend. Those qualifying will head to TPC Southwind next week to kick off the FedExCup Playoffs in Memphis. Since this is regular season GRAND FINALE, time to debut the new look of this column. The focus moving forward will be on the players who play the best on this track. Need more details about the course? Read Rob Bolton’s Power Rankings. Need more details about the field and history of the event? Read Adam Stanley’s The First Look. The important statistics you have become accustomed to have not been forgotten. I’ll have another column this week focused on the key stats at Sedgefield. I’ll take a look at the crucial components of going low here and who on TOUR matches up well given their form this season. Also, don’t be afraid to reach out with suggestions/thoughts/ideas as this idea is always evolving! Sedgefield is a perfect course and Wyndham is a perfect event to debut this idea. Since 2008 Greensboro has turned to Donald Ross’ Sedgefield Country Club to host the final event of the PGA TOUR season. Kris Spence spruced the place up in 2007 before the TOUR arrived and the only other major change to the property was removing Bentgrass greens and replacing them with Champion Bermudagrass in 2012. The Par-70 layout features just two par fives and the famous back to front tilt of Donald Ross green complexes. Kevin Kisner won a six-man playoff last season and returns to defend his title. Let’s see if he gets a run in the top five horses for this course. Horses for Courses High Five Webb Simpson (BetMGM odds. Win: +2200, Top 5: +400, Top 10: +190, Top 20: -125, Top 40: -250) The Wake Forest Arnold Palmer Scholarship recipient picked up his first TOUR victory in Greensboro in 2011 and hasn’t looked back. His annually annuity has produced 12 paydays from 13 starts and nine have produced top 10 returns. The streak is currently at five and seven of his last eight visits. Outside of T72 in 2016 and T22 in defense in 2012 every other payday is T11 or better. In 50 rounds his scoring average is a scalding 66.66. Yes, his daughter is named Wyndham for a reason! Si Woo Kim (BetMGM odds. Win: +2500, Top 5: +450, Top 10: +200, Top 20: -125, Top 40: -250) The youngest winner (21) ran away to victory in 2016 on the back of setting the then course record of 60 in the second round. His five-stroke victory announced his arrival on TOUR as did his equaling of the tournament record at the time (-21). I’ll argue he set the course record after the change to Champion Bermuda and he did so by three shots, adding to his impressive totals. Kim was unable to defend his title after some niggling injuries and upon return in 2018 he missed the cut but that’s not surprising for a player ‘defending’ for the first time. He’s now rattled off 50-under par the last three seasons and picked up checks for solo fifth, T3 and P2. In 20 rounds he’s posted 65 or better eight times. Kevin Kisner (BetMGM odds. Win: +4000, Top 5: +750, Top 10: +350, Top 20: +170, Top 40: -150) The defending champion has never missed out on the weekend on his preferred surface of Bermuda at Sedgefield. His lucky number seven last season backed up his T3 from 2020 as he sits 33-under in the last two seasons. Big picture shows us he posted four top five finishes in his last five visits. I’ll point out this streak stretches back to 2014 so he’s not an annual arrival. Muscle memory is on point as 26 of 28 are rounds of par or better and 23 of 28 are in the red, including the last 15. Russell Henley (BetMGM odds. Win: +2200, Top 5: +450, Top 10: +200, Top 20: -125, Top 40: -225) Opened last year with 62 to throw down his marker after closing 63-65 in 2020 for T9. His lead ballooned to four shots at the halfway point and was three after 54 holes. Missing a four-footer at the last and signing for 71 cost him a spot in the six man playoff and resigned him to T7. There’s too many good things over the last two years to let one putt or one round cause any concern. Heck, he posted 12-under in 2019 (T31) to run his three-year total here to 42-under. Billy Horschel (BetMGM odds. Win: +2000, Top 5: +350, Top 10: +165, Top 20: -135, Top 40: -275) The veteran and former FedExCup champ hasn’t played since 2020 when he was runner up with an impressive 20-under 260. He’s now racked up four T11 or better in his last five visits to Sedgefield. Big Billy is also eight of nine in his career when it comes to cashing at the event with a career scoring average of 67.38 from 34 rounds. His last 23 rounds are par or better at Sedgefield at 66.83 and the last 12 of those… well that’s a tasty 65.83! Odds sourced on Tuesday, August 2nd at 2 p.m. ET. For live odds visit betmgm. Pipped at the Post Sungjae Im has a pair of top 10s and a T24 from three visits and yields a 66.42 scoring average. Denny McCarthy has never MC in four tries and his worst payday is T26. Posts a scoring average of 66.81. Rory Sabbatini returned after T8 in 2013 with T4 in 2017 and hasn’t left again. His last three years here are T10-MC-T6 and has posted a 63 and 64 in those top 10s. Adam Scott returned for the first time since 2015 and posted 64-65 to join the playoff where he finished P2. Harris English hasn’t missed in seven tries and carries a 67.50 on 28 rounds. Veteran Scott Piercy has cashed in his last seven visits. Richy Werenski and CT Pan have never gone home empty handed from four tries. Russell Knox has carried his cut streak to four straight while Tyler Duncan and Mark Hubbard are on three in a row. Other past champions in the field this week include 2020 winner Jim Herman who also has a T11 and T18 to his credit over six starts. The 2019 champion JT Poston, who became the first player since 1971 to WIN a tournament while being bogey free, has MC in three other trips after T50 on debut. Davis Love III became one of the oldest winners on TOUR with his 2015 victory here, his third at the event since his debut in 1986! Camilo Villegas, the 2014 title holder, returned for the first time since 2017 and posted T46 last year. Any winners before the change to Bermuda are NOT included.

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