Is some of the ’08 magic still left for Tiger?

Even when the narrative of wind coming to the defense of a golf course is promoted into the headline, it’s still relative. Legitimate inclement weather tore the dome off last year’s CareerBuilder Challenge. Early-tournament rain was followed by moderate-to-gusty winds throughout the tournament. Daytime high temperatures settled in the low 60s. Yet, Hudson Swafford still manufactured 20-under 268 en route to his breakthrough victory and runner-up Adam Hadwin spun a 59 at La Quinta Country Club in the third round. This week’s field of 156 may need an additional layer of clothing in the morning, but it won’t be annoyed further. More on the forecast, the three courses in the rotation and other nuggets beneath the ranking. Power Rankings: CareerBuilder Challenge RANK PLAYER COMMENT Concluded 2017 with victory at the DP World Tour Championship and began 2018 with a runner-up finish in his debut at the Sentry TOC. Second appearance at CareerBuilder (T34, 2017). Knock knock! The red-hot lefty has four top fives and a solo eighth in five starts this season. Since 2016 at CareerBuilder, he’s finished a respective T11 and T3, both at 18-under 270. What’s not to love about his form? Atop the FedExCup standings with two wins and another two top 10s. Third appearance at CareerBuilder, so familiarity is another asset. Scored 63-65 on the weekend at Waialae and placed T4 for his fourth top 10 and seventh top 20 since August. Most recent of four top 20s at the CareerBuilder was a T17 in 2016. Bracketed holidays with a T4 at RSM and a T10 at Sony where he co-led with an opening 63. Seeking redemption at CareerBuilder. Sat T8 through 54 holes last year but finished T21. Won here in 2016 and finished T25 in his title defense. Opened 2018 with a T11 at Kapalua and T18 at Waialae, ranking a respective fifth and 18th in strokes gained: putting. Opened and closed a 4-for-4 fall with top 10s. Has seven top 10s since a career-best-matching T3 at last year’s CareerBuilder; placed T14 the year prior. Third on TOUR in strokes gained. The 2014 champ is in his sixth straight appearance; last year’s T12 is his second-best finish. Polished off 2017 with a T10 at DP World, a T5 at the Hero and the birth of his second child. Off since a T15 at the WGC-HSBC Champions in late October. Opened 2017-18 with a T3 at the Safeway. Two-time CareerBuilder champ; T3-T21 here on current rotation. Perfect in six starts this season with three top 10s. T4 at Waialae; led the field in fairways hit and ranked second in strokes gained: putting. Top 10s at CareerBuilder in 2013 and 2014. This event rolls around at a time when the scuffling 35-year-old can really use it. All-time earnings leader here has two wins among eight top 20s, including in each of the last four editions. Settled for a T32 at Waialae despite four red numbers. Launched into this season with a pair of top 20s and a T4. He’s gone T11-T12 at the CareerBuilder since 2016. The 36-year-old continues to glide in a groove. Last week’s T18 was his seventh consecutive top 25 and 12th in his last 16 starts. T17 (2016) and T12 (2017) at CareerBuilder. A 62 on Sunday at Waialae was just one round but it was impeccably timed. Now carries disappointment-fueled motivation of a P2 into CareerBuilder where he’s 3-for-3 with two top 20s. First start as a father after son was born on Dec. 22 and does so in an event where he’s 5-for-5 with a pair of runner-up finishes. Closed out the fall with a T17 at the RSM. Defending champion Hudson Swafford, Kevin Kisner, Austin Cook and Zach Johnson will be among the notables in Tuesday’s Fantasy Insider. For the third straight year, PGA WEST’s Stadium Course, PGA WEST’s Nicklaus Tournament Course and La Quinta CC share duties as hosts of the CareerBuilder Challenge. They comprise the 13th combination of 12 courses used for the tournament since 1987. This is the seventh edition since the 90-hole competition was abandoned. Every golfer in the field pairs with an amateur. Together with another pro-am combo, the foursomes will play each course once until the 54-hole cut of low 70 and ties falls for the professionals. If more than 78 survive, only the low 60 and ties will play the final round held at the Stadium Course. (The leading three low-net and low-gross amateurs also will tee it up in the finale to determine their champion.) In 2016, the cut fell at 9-under 207, but in the more challenging conditions last year, those at 5-under 211 and lower advanced. Going back to the fourth edition of the tournament in 1963, all courses in the rotation have been par 72s. Each of the current trio features the standard four par 3s and four par 5s. La Quinta is the shortest at 7,060 yards, but length doesn’t distinguish one course from another. This tournament is always about piling up scoring opportunities and converting on those chances. However, La Quinta has undergone some enhancements that will toughen its test a bit. Fairway bunkering at the par-4 first and 17th holes have been updated; they should generate pause off both tees. Over four dozen trees planted across the property create new sightlines as targets and the potential for modified shot shapes into greens. And the green at the par-3 15th hole may appear the same to those who are returning, but it was rebuilt entirely since last year. Years ago, La Quinta usually yielded the highest scoring average among the tracks in the rotation, but the Stadium Course has assumed that role and with ease. Tuesday’s Fantasy Insider will examine how scoring has evolved and advise how gamers should adjust. It also will include how the weather here shapes our strategy. After a Chamber of Commerce opening round, a bit of energy will impact play on Friday. Winds will kick up a bit before abating on the weekend, but daytime highs will be stuck in the 60s. ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE PGATOUR.COM’s Fantasy Columnist Rob Bolton will be filing his usual staples leading up to this week’s event. Look for the following columns this week. MONDAY: Rookie Ranking, Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Medical Extensions, Power Rankings TUESDAY*: Sleepers, Fantasy Insider, Facebook Live WEDNESDAY: One & Done; Champions One & Done primer * – Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO, which also publishes on Tuesdays  

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FORT WORTH, Texas — Jason Kokrak played in 233 PGA TOUR events before getting his first victory. The big hitter didn’t have to wait nearly as long to win again, and overcame a local favorite to do it at Colonial. RELATED: Leaderboard | Winner’s Bag: Jason Kokrak, Charles Schwab Challenge Kokrak shot an even-par 70 in a final-group showdown Sunday with resurgent Jordan Spieth, winning the Charles Schwab Challenge at 14-under 266. He was two strokes better than Spieth, who hit his approach at No. 18 over the green and into the water. While even on the day, Kokrak had five bogeys to go with his five birdies. He twice needed two shots to get out of bunkers, and had back-to-back bogeys at Nos. 15 and 16. But when he struck his final 4-foot putt, he followed the ball to the cup and finally broke into a smile when he pulled it out and celebrated with caddie David Robinson. A huge crowd followed the only contending group all day, most of them waiting to erupt for Dallas-native Spieth, who started the round with a one-stroke lead before a bogey-filled 73. Instead of his second win at Colonial, he finished as the runner-up at Hogan’s Alley for the third time. It was still Spieth’s eighth top-10 finish in his last 11 starts this year, one more top 10 than he had the previous two seasons combined. “They were definitely rooting for the guy next to me,” said Kokrak, who tied for third at Colonial last June. “Both of us didn’t have our A-game today. We grinded it out.” Kokrak, playing in his 16th tournament since winning the CJ CUP @ Shadow Creek in October, became the third player with two PGA TOUR wins this season. He joined Bryson DeChambeau and Stewart Cink in that group. Charley Hoffman finished in a four-way third at 10 under with a closing 65. He also had a tournament-best 62 on Friday, but that was sandwiched by a pair of over-par rounds (71 on Thursday and 72 on Saturday). Patton Kizzire (67), Sebastian Munoz (68) and Ian Poulter (68) were also at 10-under 270. Troy Merritt was along in seventh at 7 under. Sergio Garcia was in third place with the final round began, four strokes behind Kokrak and five behind Spieth. But the 41-year-old Spaniard, who got the first of his 11 PGA TOUR wins 20 years ago at Colonial, started with a wayward tee shot and bogeyed the opening par 5, then had had a three-putt for double bogey at No. 3. He shot a 76 and tied for 20th at 276. Kokrak took the lead for good with birdies at the longest and shortest holes, making a 13-foot putt at the 629-yard 11th hole, an then a 17-footer off the fringe at the 170-yard 13th after a tee shot the came close to going into the water fronting the par 3. Spieth only had two birdies all day, the last with an approach to less than 2 feet on No. 9 that matched them at 14 under going to the back nine. But Kokrak had quickly fallen two strokes behind after a bogey at the 551-yard opening hole, when his approach went into a greenside bunker and he didn’t get the ball out of there on the first try. But Spieth, who had only two bogeys in the first 55 holes, then bogeyed three holes in a row — and had two more on the back nine. He went in the right rough and then over the green on both Nos. 2 and 3, then hit into a bunker fronting the difficult 241-yard, par-3 4th. He blasted to six feet, but his par attempt curled around the edge of the cup and he had to tap in for bogey. Instead of going ahead at No. 4, Kokrak was even at 12 under because of his bogey after driving over the green. But Kokrak took the lead for the first time with a 23-foot birdie putt at the fifth, before both rolled in birdies at No. 6. Kokrak then had his other bunker trouble, from the side of the No. 7 green, when he again needed two shots to get out. That bogey tied them again, with Spieth making par after a benefitting from tee shot wide right that hit a tree and ricocheted into the fairway.

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LAS VEGAS – Tony Finau stopped short of saying he would text U.S. Presidents Cup captain Tiger Woods a picture of his Saturday scorecard from TPC Summerlin, but did smile at the suggestion. Finau scorched his way around the course in the third round of the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open with a 9-under 62, a career-low on the PGA TOUR by two shots. It left the former Puerto Rico Open winner at 15 under for the tournament, giving him the clubhouse lead when he signed his card. With the majority of the field still to complete their rounds, the 30-year-old knows he’ll still have work to do on Sunday if he wants to earn his second career win and all but force Woods to add him as one of his four captains picks. Finau also plans to play the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP (Oct. 24-27) in Japan and the World Golf Championships – HSBC Champions (Oct. 31 – Nov. 3) in China, after which Woods will finalize his team for the Dec. 12-15 event at Royal Melbourne. Related: Leaderboard | Hahn rebounds from snowman | Cantlay continues TPC Summerlin dominance Finau finished ninth among potential U.S. team players in points, making him the first player to miss automatic qualification. “It motivates me… I’m a little bit disappointed that I didn’t make the team,â€� Finau said of the Presidents Cup carrot. “Maybe that’s lighting a little bit of a fire in me going into the season. It would be hard to win a golf tournament in the fall and not get picked, I feel. “He’s (Woods) paying attention, he’s watching. He’s the captain of the USA team, and it would be great to play on the team, but I unfortunately haven’t played my way on yet, and the only thing I can do is play some good golf in the fall and see what happens.â€� While he broke through with his first win in 2016, Finau’s career has been about near-misses since. He was sixth in the FedExCup in 2018 and seventh in 2019 without winning an event. Over the past two PGA TOUR seasons ,Finau has 17 top-10s, including five runner-ups and a third-place finish. He wants the drought to end sooner rather than later. “Every week I tee it up and I try to put myself in contention to win. This week I’ve got that opportunity,â€� he said. “It’s nice. My lowest round of my career, one of the best rounds I’ve ever played out here on the PGA TOUR. So it’s really nice to get off to this type of start this early in the season. “Somebody can still go really low that’s already started the day four or five in front of me, so I could very well still be trailing going into tomorrow… but to shoot 9-under today, it was what I needed, and again, I’m going to have a chance to win tomorrow, which is exciting.â€�

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