Webb Simpson wins THE PLAYERS Championship

DETROIT, Mich. – Look around the practice greens at a PGA TOUR event, and it’s unlikely you’ll see the same putter setup twice. With all of the new putter grip technologies, prototype putter heads, shaft designs and varying putter lengths, it’s easy to see why each putter used by a PGA TOUR professional is somewhat of a snowflake. Every player is looking for that perfect look and feel to instill confidence on the greens in order to putt their best. J.B. Holmes is no different, except he uses something on his putter that very few TOUR pros use: athletic tape. No, not lead tape, which many players use to add weight to their club head. Holmes’ SuperStroke Traxion Pistol GT 1.0 putter grip is wrapped with athletic tape that can be found in your local sporting goods store or pharmacy. About two years ago, Holmes says he started using athletic tape around his putter grip to combat sweaty hands. “My hands sweat a lot and the grip gets slick, so I do that so it doesn’t get slippery,â€� Holmes told PGATOUR.COM. Actually, Holmes doesn’t apply the tape himself, nor does he have a putter maker from the equipment trucks do it. Instead, he trusts his caddie, Brandon Parsons, to apply the athletic tape. On the other end of the putter, Holmes uses a Scotty Cameron 009M Tour Only SSS 350 prototype head that he’s had in the bag for “about a year.â€� Holmes says that he’s “a guy who can switch putters week-to-week,â€� but that he hasn’t made a change for awhile. Back in February, Holmes used this putter setup — although he has fresh tape on the grip now – to win the 2019 Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club. For those with extra sweaty palms, try out Holmes’ putter grip trick for less slippage.

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FORT WORTH, Texas – First, Daniel Berger put on the plaid jacket that has been awarded to each winner at Colonial since the early 1950s. Then he received a belt buckle, befitting this city’s motto as “Where the West Begins.â€� Then the big check, of course. And finally the Leonard Trophy, the 42-inch, 55-pound piece of hardware that probably requires a remodel of every recipient’s trophy case. RELATED: Leaderboard | Winner’s Bag Berger stood on the 18th green at Colonial on Sunday afternoon, the newest champion of the Charles Schwab Challenge thanks to his one-hole playoff win over Collin Morikawa. He held the trophy high in the air. A handful of photographers snapped his picture. Near the clubhouse, a couple of people clapped. Other than that … well, it’s how it will be for a few weeks now. While the taste of victory is always sweet, this one Sunday was definitely a unique flavor. “A little different for sure,â€� Berger said, “but in the end, I was holding the trophy – and that’s all that matters to me.â€� In this most unusual of weeks for the PGA TOUR and its return to golf, Colonial found a winner who somehow managed to stay hot during the three-month long suspension of this season. Berger’s last three starts before the conoravirus pandemic changed everything? A T-9 at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, a T-5 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and a T-4 at The Honda Classic. Scoring-wise, he rolled into Cowtown with 24 consecutive rounds under par. In retrospect, we should’ve seen this coming, but given a field with so many big names, including the world’s top-five ranked players, it might’ve been easy to overlook a guy who ranked 107th in the world and 45th in the FedExCup, and whose last TOUR win came three years ago – prior to a wrist injury that developed in 2018 and eventually put him on a Major Medical Extension entering this season. But he obviously found something before the break, and he didn’t lose it while back home in Jupiter, Florida. Entering the day two shots off the lead, he made his move with three birdies in his first eight holes, including both par 3s on the front side. He never wavered from his mindset starting out Sunday. “I just kept telling myself, why not me today?â€� Berger said. Despite the new environment, the testing protocols, the social distancing rules and the lack of fans due to safety and health concerns, Berger never felt really out of sorts this week. He had rented a house in the neighborhood and could basically walk to the course. His uncle came into town and cooked his breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. He did not venture out anywhere else. If he wasn’t at the course, he was at the house. Nowhere else. “I thought about the virus very few times this week,â€� he said. “You know, it’s been such a big part of our lives for the last two months, and I feel like I just tried to do everything I can to be safe, and that’s all you really can do. You wash your hands, you don’t touch your face, you wear a mask when you can, you social distance, and obviously we got tested early in the week, so I knew I was healthy before I got here. “We had the temperature readings before we got on-site every single day. I knew that all of the employees and staff that were here were doing the same thing. I felt completely safe.â€� His game was completely safe, too – especially after his one hiccup of the day at the par-4 ninth when he found a greenside bunker and couldn’t get up-and-down. Once the back nine, Berger was bogey-free while sprinkling in a couple of birdies … including the pivotal one at the par-4 18th with a 10-1/2 foot putt. On-site to watch it was the group scorer, sitting in a white foldable chair that was the only one at the hole (wonder how much that seat would’ve gone for on the secondary market?). There was also the cameraman up in the tower behind the green, along with a few people around the perimeter. Oh, and Jim Nantz flying solo in the CBS booth. Berger had just gone to 15 under with a final-round 66 and was now the man to beat with six players still on the course. You could’ve heard a pin drop. But then, Berger isn’t one likely to hear his name chanted anyway, even though it should be, considering he’s a two-time TOUR winner and played on the U.S. Team that steamrolled the International Team in the 2017 Presidents Cup at Liberty National. Sunday’s win comes against the deepest field in tournament history – and it sends a message that Berger is healthy now and ready to get reclaim some of the territory he had carved out on golf’s landscape before his wrist problems. “There was so many times today where I could have given it up or let the pressure get to me,â€� Berger said, “but I hung in there and I played practically some of the best golf I’ve played the last six years the last five holes today.â€� He still had to win a playoff, though, after Morikawa failed to convert a 6-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole that could’ve won the tournament. Berger had lost each of his first two playoffs, including the 2017 Travelers Championship when Jordan Spieth holed a shot from the bunker. It’s the kind of scar tissue that can pay dividends in these situations, especially against a youngster such as Morikawa, making just his 21st TOUR start since turning pro. Morikawa started the playoff at the par-4 17th with an errant drive that finished under a tree, forcing him to hit a low runner with his approach. Berger went from the fairway to just over the green. In the end, each had short par putts to convert. After his chip shot, Berger wanted to putt out and put the pressure on Morikawa to keep the playoff alive. He checked with Mark Russell, the TOUR’s Vice President of Rules and Competition, to make sure he can go ahead and finish. “I was just curious whether could I finish out or did I have to wait for Collin to go ahead because I wanted to knock that one in before Collin had that 3-footer coming up,â€� Berger said. “I just wanted to clarify before I did do that, and Mark said it was OK, so I went ahead and did that.â€� When Morikawa missed, Berger shook his caddie’s hand – OK, it’s not proper social distancing but you can forgive them this one time – and drew a sigh of relief. It had taken a while to get back in the winner’s circle, and it certainly wasn’t the kind of celebration he expected once he did, but he’s back now. “The atmosphere in my opinion was fantastic, even though there weren’t any fans out there,â€� Berger said. “You knew that millions of people were watching at home, and that was just enough for me.â€� More than enough, as it turned out.

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One of the rewards for devout fans is rolling out in real time right now. Because school is out for the summer, the best former collegians are splashing onto the scene. They’re paying off your patience and passion to witness the next class of supreme talent. As it has over the years, the Travelers Championship is perfectly positioned to showcase it, and no one will argue that the bumper crop of youth in play this week just might be the best the tournament has ever hosted. Justin Suh, Collin Morikawa, Viktor Hovland and Matthew Wolff all are in the field of 156 on sponsor exemptions. Suh (Memorial) and Morikawa (Canadian) already have made their professional debuts, while the latter pair of former teammates at Oklahoma State University join the play-for-pay ranks at TPC River Highlands. Remarkably, of the four, only Wolff, who won a school-record six tournaments for the Cowboys, including the NCAA Division 1 individual title, never ascended to No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. He leaves his legacy as the No. 2 (to Hovland). Former champions Phil Mickelson (2001, 2002) and Russell Knox (2016) will be reviewed in Tuesday’s Fantasy Insider with Tony Finau, Patrick Reed, Tommy Fleetwood and other notables. You’re excused if you identify with TPC River Highlands as Bubba Watson’s personal playground. He’s connected for one-quarter of his dozen PGA TOUR victories in the tournament, including last year’s three-stroke triumph. It was the first time he didn’t need a playoff to prevail. To help frame Watson’s dominance here, consider that his margin in all-time earnings at the Travelers Championship of $2.111 million over 2007 champ Hunter Mahan in second would rank fourth on the same list. Unquestionably, Watson’s distance off the tee has mattered at TPC River Highlands, a stock par 70 that tips at just 6,841 yards. Over the last six seasons, the only shorter course at which the TOUR has stopped is Pebble Beach (6,816 yards), which is set up as a par 72 for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. (It measured 7,075 yards and played to a par of 71 for last week’s U.S. Open.) However, what makes the track in Cromwell, Connecticut, attractive and fun is that all skill sets can contend. Truth be told, muscle isn’t a prerequisite. It’s counterintuitive given its history as a scorer’s paradise, but course management plays a stronger role. This is revealed in a field scoring average of 69.596 last year. That was in the center of the bull’s-eye of expectations. Hitting greens in regulation never doesn’t matter, but its value is multiplied this week. Putting surfaces average only 5,000 square feet, but the Poa grass is prepped to run as long as 12 feet on the Stimpmeter. This combination yields a stingy scrambling percentage every year. Last year’s clip of 54.94 percent was 13th-lowest of all courses. It’s not quite the challenge of the U.S. Open on Poa at Pebble Beach, but it’s closer to that than for which it gets recognition. Oh, and the primary rough is allow to grow to four inches at TPC River Highlands, further emphasizing the objective of finding the shortest grass on approach. Mother Nature will greet the official start of summer in the heart of the tournament with gradually improving conditions. The likelihood of rain and storms exists through Friday, but terrific weather is expected on the weekend. Moderate winds at worst may influence scoring mid-tournament, while daytime highs will flirt with 80 degrees. ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE PGATOUR.COM’s Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton recaps and previews every tournament from numerous angles. Look for his following contributions as scheduled. MONDAY: Rookie Ranking, Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Medical Extensions, Power Rankings TUESDAY*: Sleepers, Fantasy Insider WEDNESDAY: One & Done THURSDAY: Champions One & Done * – Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, which also publishes on Tuesdays.

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