Poulter in position for second win in three weeks at RBC Heritage

Click here to read the full article…

NOTE: If you play PGA TOUR Champions One & Done presented by SERVPRO, the Regions Tradition begins on Thursday. It’s the first of five majors on the circuit, all of which feature a cut. See the possibilities at the bottom of the page to assist you in determining your pick. There are all kinds of takeaways from last week’s PLAYERS, but one of the overlooked facts is that only three of the golfers who finished inside the top 11 in the tournament are Americans. Kyle Stanley (T4), Lucas Glover (T4) and Brendan Steele (T6) have enjoyed varied levels of success all season, so none were surprises to threaten at TPC Sawgrass, but that they paced the host nation, as it were, was not expected. Now, that’s not necessarily a trend at the PGA TOUR’s flagship event as it is the latest evidence that global depth is as strong as ever. More importantly, it’s a reminder that THE PLAYERS presents a phenomenal opportunity to invest in it while reserving homegrown strength elsewhere. Going back three years, five internationals were sprinkled among the top 11 in the 2016 edition, six of the top 12 in 2015 and seven of the top 10 in 2014. We could keep turning back the clock, but you get the idea. But of the internationals who have finished inside the top 10 in the last six years, only two were non-members of the PGA TOUR. These are timely notes to log while any sting is still fresh from the fallout of last week. That we know is commonplace in that tournament. Just as the legion of champions at TPC Sawgrass is rich with golfers from all corners of the world, so goes the theme at the AT&T Byron Nelson at Four Seasons Resort and Club Dallas at Las Colinas. Since it transitioned to solo host in 2008, six of the nine winners are internationals, including defending champion Sergio Garcia of Spain. However, he’s the only non-American inside the top five of my Power Rankings from which I’m encouraging you find your pick. J-Dub, er, Jonathan Wall isn’t going to like it, but I’m matching him again this week in selecting Brooks Koepka (No. 2 in the Power Rankings). In the spirit of competition, pushes are lame but they’re still important. (This begs the question about what we’re going to do if it’s possible in the Playoffs. I’ve recommended solutions to gamers over the years about how to handle the dynamic, if necessary, and I’ll revisit the talking point in this space another time, but we’ll cross that bridge as a league later.) To be honest, Koepka was nowhere near my crosshairs for any stop as recent as two months ago. Why would’ve he been? As we’ve witnessed on occasion, the Match Play (where he escaped the round robin) can do wonders for confidence and form. He hasn’t backed down since. Before I confirmed that Koepka was still on my board, I was ready to pull the trigger on Tony Finau (No. 5). He stumbled in the team format in New Orleans and missed last week’s cut – he’s allowed dispensations for each – but he checks all of the other boxes for Las Colinas. Furthermore, and just like that, two-man gamers have their quinella: Koepka-Finau. If you’re in an earnings-based format, remember that you’ll want Dustin Johnson (No. 1) on your board at the sites with the biggest paydays. It’s that simple. Jordan Spieth (No. 3) remains chalk, of course, but his pedestrian interest in Las Colinas is realized in a lackluster record. Limit him to roster games this week. And if you didn’t burn Garcia (No. 4) at THE PLAYERS, you’ll appreciate him as an option when The Open Championship rolls around. Two-man gamers can have some fun complementing Koepka or Finau with a long hitter who in some form, so consider Byeong Hun An or Kevin Tway. Otherwise, Russell Henley is sexy, Chad Campbell is a man for the job and Bud Cauley offers risk-reward if you’re chasing. 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 2016-17. All are pending golfer commitment. Keegan Bradley … Byron Nelson; Memorial; WGC-Bridgestone; Dell Technologies Jason Day … U.S. Open; Canadian; WGC-Bridgestone; PGA Championship; Dell Technologies; TOUR Championship Jason Dufner … Byron Nelson; DEAN & DELUCA; U.S. Open; TOUR Championship Harris English … DEAN & DELUCA Tony Finau … Byron Nelson; Memorial Sergio Garcia … Byron Nelson (defending); Open Championship; TOUR Championship Charley Hoffman … Byron Nelson; DEAN & DELUCA; Travelers; Canadian Billy Horschel … St. Jude; TOUR Championship Dustin Johnson … Byron Nelson; Memorial; St. Jude; U.S. Open (defending); Canadian; TOUR Championship Brooks Koepka … Byron Nelson; St. Jude; U.S. Open; PGA Championship Matt Kuchar … Byron Nelson; DEAN & DELUCA; Memorial; Canadian; WGC-Bridgestone Marc Leishman … DEAN & DELUCA; Memorial; Travelers; Open Championship Ryan Moore … Travelers; John Deere (defending); TOUR Championship Louis Oosthuizen … Dell Technologies Ryan Palmer … Byron Nelson; DEAN & DELUCA; St. Jude Scott Piercy … John Deere; BMW Patrick Reed … Wyndham; Dell Technologies Charl Schwartzel … Memorial; U.S. Open; Open Championship; WGC-Bridgestone Jordan Spieth … DEAN & DELUCA (defending); John Deere; WGC-Bridgestone; PGA Championship; TOUR Championship Gary Woodland … Byron Nelson; Barracuda; PGA Championship; Dell Technologies; TOUR Championship CHAMPIONS ONE & DONE POSSIBILITIES Regions Tradition The Founders Course at Greystone Golf & Country Club in Birmingham, Alabama, hosts for the second consecutive year. It’s a par 72 with five par 5s. It hosted the Bruno’s Memorial Classic from 1992-2005, but widespread changes and upgrades were made in advance of its return to the PGA TOUR Champions in 2016. Golfers listed alphabetically. Rob’s serious considerations in bold. Stephen Ames … Won Mitsubishi Electric a month ago. T13 at Insperity two weeks ago. Ninth in earnings. Tommy Armour III … Co-runner-up at the Insperity Invitational two weeks ago was his first top 10 in nearly 12 months. Shared third at Greystone last year. Olin Browne … Distant runner-up finish here last year is attractive, but he’s gone five straight individual competitions without a top 40 entering this week. John Daly … Fresh off breakthrough title at The Woodlands and went a respective T12-T13 in his previous two starts. Jay Haas … Holding his own at 63 years young. Chased a T5 at the Bass Pro Shops Legends with a solo fifth at the Insperity. Ranks 17th on the money list. Miguel Angel Jiménez … Making his debut at Greystone. Currently third in earnings with a 2nd-Win-T8-T8-T7 run in tow. Bernhard Langer … Won by six here last year. Comfortably out front on the 2017 money list. Remember that the purse ($2.3 million) is the second-lowest among the five majors. Tom Lehman … Since winning in Tucson, he’s added a T16, T8 and T13, respectively, and sits 10th in earnings. His T35 here last year was his fifth-worst finish in 20 starts. Scott McCarron … After an early victory at the Allianz, he’s drifted to fifth on the money list, but has six top 20s this season. Leads the tour in par-5 scoring. Placed sixth here last year. Colin Montgomerie … T17 here last year. Still chasing his first top-five finish of 2017. Had six in 2016 and two by this point of the season. Kenny Perry … Held the outright lead after each of the first two rounds last year before fading to a T23. Sixth in 2017 earnings with a pair of T2s, including two weeks ago at the Insperity. Gene Sauers … He’s traded three top 10s with four results outside the top 25 this season and sits 12th in earnings. Tied for 12th at Greystone last year. Joey Sindelar … If not for his season-best T3 last year, he wouldn’t be mentioned here. Seven starts into 2017 and he’s yet to clear $50K in earnings. Vijay Singh … In his only start of 2017, he won the Bass Pro Shops Legends (with Carlos Franco). Made noise last week with a T16 at THE PLAYERS. Now making his Greystone debut. Steve Stricker … In three starts since turning 50, he’s finished second, T3 and T8, respectively, while working in a T16 (Masters), T14 (Zurich Classic) and a T41 (THE PLAYERS) on the PGA TOUR. Kevin Sutherland … The most reliable source to put points on the board. No worse than T8 in his last nine starts. Four top 10s and another six top 20s in his last 10 starts in majors. Kirk Triplett … Tied for third at Greystone in 2016, the second of six top 10s last year. Four top 10s already in 2017, including a T7 at the Insperity in the last event. Duffy Waldorf … Looking to rebound from an uncharacteristically poor showing at the Insperity, but still slots 14th in earnings. Back-doored a T7 here last year.

Click here to read the full article…

Welcome Back! The PGA TOUR returns to the mainland as the West Coast swing resumes in the California desert at the CareerBuilder Challenge in La Quinta. This pro-am event has been around since 1960 and used four courses and five rounds to determine a champion until 2012. For the seventh year in a row the pros will only get four cracks at three different courses to find out who’s the best of the bunch this week. While each course has its own features, gamers will need to remember that only one, La Quinta Country Club, has been in use in 14 of the last 15 events. In 2016 Pete Dye’s Stadium Course and Jack Nicklaus’ Tournament Course were added to the rotation for the first time. When these tracks were added, course history from the previous two flew directly out the window. Speaking of rotation, the Stadium Course will host the final round for the third year in a row, meaning it will be the only course of the three to be used twice. Every pro and their amateur playing partner will play each course once with the top 70 and ties advancing to the weekend. If there are more than 78 players making the cut, only 60 will advance to the weekend. Jason Dufner was the first to take the title with the two new courses in play. His 25-under-par 268 was three shots lower than Hudson Swafford’s winning total from last year. Swafford will look to join “The Desert Fox” Johnny Miller as the only player to defend in the Coachella Valley. TALES OF THE TAPE Last year it was weird to see champion Hudson Swafford wearing a long-sleeve shirt under his polo as he held the trophy on Sunday. The final-round temperature only hit 61 and it was breezy so there’s no doubt that kept scoring quiet a day after Adam Hadwin posted 59 at La Quinta Country Club. Swafford took advantage of the greens he hit for the week by holing the important putts, those for birdie. His final round saw him circle three of the last four and become only the second player since 2012 to come from off the lead to win. His dominance of the par-5s is relevant because all three tracks play to par 72. ShotLink is only used on the host course but the stats above translate on all three tracks. The “regular” chart returns will return next week as well as a look back at the last THREE winners. Ch-ch-ch-changes! I do know that Swafford was the first, first-time winner since Jhonattan Vegas in 2011 and first since the reduction to four rounds in 2012. I’ll point out that Vegas is also the only rookie winner here and just the third international winner since the turn of the century. Jason Dufner needed two playoff holes to defeat David Lingmerth in the first edition with the two new courses in play. Both players carded 25-under-par 263 and both did it in two separate fashions. The champ opened 64-65-64 to carry a two-stroke lead into Sunday. The Swede made it a grandstand finish as he posted 62-65 (bogey free) to force extra holes. I’d point out that Adam Hadwin played in the second-to-last group in this edition for those of you paying attention. Dufner’s success was based on his strength, lighting up greens in regulation. This was his first top 10 in seven tries in the Coachella Valley but he entered the week on the back of consecutive top 10’s at The RSM Classic and Sony Open in Hawaii. When Dufner’s putter heats up, he can be a bother for the rest of the field. He circled a whopping 30 birdies winning in 2016. His putter has shown hints of warming as he circled 21 birdies last week at the Sony Open on the back of 18 at Kapalua. NOTE: Golfers inside the top 25 in each statistic on the 2016-17 PGA TOUR are listed only if they are scheduled to compete in the CareerBuilder Challenge. * – Finished inside the top 10 at the CareerBuilder Challenge since 2016. Par-5 Scoring Rank Golfer 2 *Luke List 5 *Phil Mickelson 7 Jon Rahm 7 Brandon Hagy 12 Seamus Power 12 Rory Sabbatini 12 Kevin Tway 18 Nick Taylor Putting: Birdie-or-Better Percentage Rank Golfer 8 *Phil Mickelson 10 *Matt Every 11 Camilo Villegas 12 Grayson Murray 14 Sam Saunders 15 Jon Rahm 19 Scott Piercy 22 *Luke List 23 Brandt Snedeker 25 Tom Hoge Greens in Regulation Rank Golfer 1 Martin Flores 5 Ryan Armour 6 Lucas Glover 8 Cameron Percy 9 Robert Garrigus 12 J.J. Henry 14 *Luke List 15 Chad Campbell 18 Stewart Cink 21 Jon Rahm 23 *Hudson Swafford 24 Jim Herman Gamers playing the PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO will want to revolve their rosters around avoiding the Stadium Course as much as possible this week. The last two years the Pete Dye design (par 72, 7,113) has played the most difficult of the trio. La Quinta (par 72, 7,060) is annually one of the easiest courses on TOUR and the last two years have seen it rate third easiest in 2016 and second easiest last year. The Nicklaus Tournament layout (par 72, 7,159) nipped La Quinta for the second easiest track in 2016 but rallied in the breeze last year to rank No. 39 of 50 in difficulty but still played 1.2 strokes under par. Having low scores in pro-ams is hardly earth-shattering information. The rounds are already long enough so heavy rough, slick greens and tough pin placements aren’t going to be on the menu. Toss in usually perfect weather and the recipe for going low is optimum. As is the case in shootouts, the players who find the most GIR will be the ones with the most chances for birdie. This week, with all three courses playing par 72 and all less than 7,200 yards, there won’t be many acceptable excuses for scores worse than par. Anything in the 70’s this week will need to be followed with something in the low 60’s. Bogeys will almost feel like doubles especially if the 54-hole cut hovers around 9 under par like it was in 2016. With a birdie-fest on the cards, there’s not much mystery on why there aren’t repeat champions. A shootout on short courses should involve just about everyone this week so it’s your job to narrow it down. I’ve provided some help below!    Weatherman Rob Bolton has suggested in his Power Rankings the weather this week won’t be perfect as temperatures are stuck in the 60s but the wind looks to be tame. Be sure to look for my post-round recap Emergency 9 each night shortly after the conclusion of play! NOTE: The groups below are comprehensive to assist in data mining. Inclusion doesn’t imply automatic endorsement in every fantasy game as all decisions are specific to your situation. CONFIDENCE MEN Selected golfers with multiple cuts made sorted by rank on the tournament’s money list. BUILDING CONFIDENCE Sorted by best finish, selected golfers who are either finally finding form on the course or are still relatively new to the tournament but have enjoyed some success. OTHER SIGNS OF CONFIDENCE Sorted by most recent top 10s, selected golfers for whom it’s been a few years since their last.

Click here to read the full article…