Shubhankar Sharma soars into the lead in Mexico

Here are nine tidbits from the opening round of The RSM Classic that gamers can use tomorrow, this weekend or down the road. Be looking for the Emergency 9 shortly after the close of play of each round of the tournament. Change in Course: Yesterday, 22 of the top 27 players posted their rounds on the par-72 Plantation course. With similar weather conditions on the cards Friday, I thought those playing Plantation would have the advantage again. Wrongo. Of the eight lowest rounds of the day, seven were carded on the par-70 Seaside course. The winning scores the last two years have been 22-under-par and 17-under-par, so there are still birdies to be made on the weekend. What’s Cookin’?: Veteran gamers will remember the summer of 2015 when Austin Cook burst on the scene. He racked up five T22 or better finishes in his first six events, which included a T11 and a pair of top 10’s. Flash forward two years and he’s posted two top 25’s in three starts in the new season playing from the Web.com priority list. His bogey-free 62 on Seaside was the best of the day. Add that to his bogey-free 66 on Plantation yesterday, and he’s our leader by one. Hey, Bud. What’s your problem? No problem at all! After an even-par round at Plantation yesterday, Bud Cauley jumped right back into the tournament by signing for 63 on Seaside, moving him up a whopping 83 places (T12). The first two years Cauley played here he finished T15 (2011) and T20 (2012) but the last two years he’s MC. He’s already posted a top 10 (T7, Safeway Open) in three events this year. Hubba Hubba, Bubba: Bubba Watson, coming off his worst season since his rookie year of 2006, made his season debut this week. I guess gamers love a famous name as almost THIRTY percent of you made Watson the sixth-most selected player in the PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO game. After shooting a 71 at Plantation yesterday, he repaid your faith with 64 on Friday that included 23 putts and a double bogey. He moved up 61 places and sits T12 entering the weekend. Welcome back, Brandt: The last time we saw Brandt Snedeker in tournament action he was firing a final round 64 at TPC River Highlands (T14). His sternum injury caused him to miss time and eventually change his swing. The change is working as he hit all 14 fairways on Thursday and nine of 14 on Friday. A pair of 67’s positions him inside the top 10 at T6. OAD Crash and Burn: Charles Howell III was the most popular selection in the PGA TOUR Fantasy One & Done presented by SERVPRO. His percentage was almost DOUBLE of second choice Kevin Kisner. With three holes remaining, he sat three-under on the day and one shot above the cut line (-4). After a double on No. 16 and a bogey on No. 17, he was two shots underwater. Brutal result for gamers as Howell had never MC in seven previous trips. OAD Crash and Burn II: PGA TOUR Fantasy One & Done presented by SERVPRO gamers saw the fourth-most selected player, Ollie Schniederjans, fall short as well. There are two schools of thoughts in OAD that will always push and pull gamers. With only 48 tournaments, there’s no need to select players off the radar. Just play the chalk! Others suggest fortune favors the bold and stealing top 10’s throughout the year with outliers is the key to victory. Chose wisely, my friends. Blame me for Jamie? Nope, but you’re welcome for Howell! Turn your furor to Rob Bolton as Lovemark was his choice in the experts One & Done. After a win with Patrick Cantlay at Shriners, I have thrown out Kevin Chappell (MC) at Mayakoba and Howell (MC) this week. I’m not expecting the phone to ring from that group anytime soon! Fantasy Golf is hard, Part 1,293,399: Si Woo Kim (MC) was third last week at Mayakoba and didn’t break par in two chances this week…Patrick Rodgers (MC) gave it a sniff last week and returned to a course where he was T10 last year…Mac Hughes had a baby, changed his name and was defending for the first time. That’s a full plate, and his MC is not surprising…After my terrible suggestion of lining up Brandon Harkins for Friday, move cautiously with my next suggestion. Kevin Streelman is bogey free through 36 holes and finished T6 in 2011. He’s played 10 rounds on Seaside and four of them are 66 or 67. Good luck!

Click here to read the full article…

Click here to read the full article…

His work was over for the week, but Scott Brown, like a lot of PGA TOUR pros, is always on the job. So, after having missed the cut at Bethpage Black in the first FedExCup Playoffs event last August, Brown wanted to get right back at it. Surrounded by a plethora of golf options out on Long Island, he hit balls at the Tam O’Shanter Club in Glen Head where the head professional, Mark Brown, presented an intriguing suggestion: Why not go look at the Glen Oaks Club in nearby Old Westbury? “So, I went over and played it, and I’m glad I did,� said Scott Brown. “It’s my kind of golf course.� The impetus to play Glen Oaks went deeper than practice, though. Scott Brown knew that THE NORTHERN TRUST would open the 2017 FedExCup Playoffs at Glen Oaks, a course that may be a mystery to PGA TOUR pros but certainly isn’t to many members of the Metropolitan section of the PGA of America. Mark Brown, for instance. A week before the FedExCup Playoffs at Bethpage Black, Glen Oaks hosted the 101st Met Open where the Tam O’Shanter head pro shot 69-69-68 for a 4-under 206 and four-stroke win. He was excited to point Scott Brown toward Glen Oaks, but Tim Shifflett isn’t surprised to hear that it came with advanced billing. “We call it the Augusta of the north,� Mark had said. “I know people say that, but I just don’t like that expression,� said Shifflett, the head professional at Glen Oaks since 2001. “It certainly wasn’t our intent when we renovated.� Mark Brown understands the pretentiousness to compare any golf course to the home of the Masters, “but, honestly, (Glen Oaks) is that pure, that perfectly conditioned.� What Mark Brown might not have known is that Scott Brown is a native of Augusta, Ga., and knows Augusta National well. He was in synch with Mark Brown’s assessment. “It’s a fabulous golf course, similar (in style) to Augusta National in that you have to play shots to certain quadrants of the greens,� said Scott Brown. “It’s not crazy tight (nor is Augusta National) and it’s fun to play. The greens are firm and you have a lot of options for shots around the greens.� Jason Caron, the head professional at the Mill River Club in Oyster Bay, has heard the “Augusta of the north� expression and said it fit. “Seriously, Glen Oaks is that good,� he said. Certainly, its history is that good, too, flavored in large part by its connection to the “Roaring ‘20s� when so many of America’s wealthiest families established sprawling estates on Long Island. Shifflett noted that the Glen Oaks Club started in 1924 on the Queens-Nassau border, built on land purchased from William K. Vanderbilt’s “Deepdale Estate� which curled around Lake Success. When reporters wrote of two-time PGA Champion Leo Diegel’s exploits in the 1920s, he was said to have been from Glen Oaks. As urban sprawl spread on Long Island in the ‘60s, the Glen Oaks Club gave way to the North Shore Towers. Club members bought land about 15 miles west and in 1971 re-opened Glen Oaks in Old Westbury as a 27-hole course designed by Joe Finger. Not that it wasn’t a good course — the routing was praised and the putting surfaces were splendid— but Shifflett used the word “unmemorable� to describe it. “It was not interesting. Every hole looked similar — trees left, bunkers right; trees right, bunkers left. Every green had a bunker left, a bunker right, a bunker to the rear,� said Shifflett. “It was all so redundant.� The hiring of superintendent Craig Currier – who had done brilliant work at Bethpage Black for both the 2002 and 2009 U.S. Opens and had also worked at Augusta National and Garden City GC – signaled a change of direction for Glen Oaks. With credit to a membership that trusted their vision, Shifflett and Currier were told to pick an architect who would oversee a renovation. After considering bigger names, they decided on Joel Weiman, senior designer with McDonald & Sons of Maryland, with whom Currier had worked on a Bethpage project. Together, they went to work . . . and work . . . and work. “It was more work than I ever envisioned. But once we started, there was no stopping,� laughed Currier. “It’s like when you start tearing your kitchen apart.� The overall goal, said Shifflett, was for “green grass, white sand and mulch around the trees – three distinct looks.� Hurricanes of 2011 (Irene) and 2012 (Sandy) contributed to the aesthetics all three wanted by clearing several swaths of trees. Mostly, though, it was the collaborative efforts of Weimer, Currier and Shifflett that produced sweeping vistas and such a clean, fresh look. Scott Brown, who played Glen Oaks with firm and fast conditions, gave it thumbs up. He loved the sprawling piece of property with wide and tightly-mown fairways that run into sharp-edged bunkers, shaved areas around the greens, and putting surfaces which can offer speeds that will command your respect. If similar conditions exist August 24-27 for THE NORTHERN TRUST, Scott Brown suggested his brethren will be tested. But Mark Brown, who was the only competitor to break par at last year’s Met Open, said Mother Nature will be in charge. “If it does get soft,� he said, “I could see the guys eating it up. It’s not terribly long (using Nos. 1-3 and 6-9 from the White Course, 4-5 from the Red Course, and all nine of the Blue Course, Glen Oaks will offer a composite layout of approximately 7,300 yards) and these guys usually figure things out quickly.� Currier, after two U.S. Opens at Bethpage, knows the landscape. If he could dial it up, “I’d wish for a good, dry week with a little wind,� and he’s confident that “from tee-to-green (the players) will love it.� The firmness of the greens and their speeds will likely decide the overall scores, but for Currier there is a bigger picture. The Met Section has a long line of world-class golf courses and the Glen Oaks Club — with a distinctive look that is its own — is getting mentioned in the conversation. “They’re talking about our golf course,� said Currier. “That’s kind of cool to see.�

Click here to read the full article…