Harold Varner III seeks first PGA TOUR win at A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier

Don't lament that it's ending. Celebrate that it's going to conclude in its entirety. This recurring affirmation has applied to the 2019-20 PGA TOUR season, the fall portion of the 2020-21 season, the Aloha Swing that opened calendar-year 2021 and now the West Coast Swing. Until the world operates in whatever the new normal will be, expectations must continue to be reasonable so as to guarantee a positive experience. The same approach has applied to the host of The Genesis Invitational, Tiger Woods, both in recent years as it concerns his career trajectory and his inability to capture victory in the annual atop at Riviera County Club. Woods currently is sidelined indefinitely as he recovers from his most recent back surgery. But of course, the show must go on in the morning shadows of Hollywood. Continue reading below the projected contenders for what a stacked field can expect from the historically tough track west of Los Angeles, an enhanced perk for the winner and more. RELATED: The First Look | Inside the Field POWER RANKINGS: THE GENESIS INVITATIONAL Tuesday's Fantasy Insider will include Jordan Spieth, Hideki Matsuyama, Viktor Hovland, Will Zalatoris, three-time Genesis champion Bubba Watson and other notables. As of Monday afternoon, the field at Riviera was 121 deep. That's one more than reserved because of the strength in numbers among the automatic qualifiers. Included in its qualifying criteria, the tournament invited the top 125 in a special FedExCup points list that extended from the beginning of the 2019-20 season and through the Waste Management Phoenix Open two weeks ago. (Similar criteria will apply to THE PLAYERS Championship and the RBC Heritage, but those tournaments reserve space for 144 and 132 golfers, respectively.) "The Riv" is a par 71 with three par 5s. It tips at 7,322 yards. For relevant purposes, the course remained unchanged since last year. The only layer of kikuyu rough is trimmed to an inch and a half, plenty deep for relatively narrow fairways and greens that are prepped to reach 12-and-a-half feet on the Stimpmeter. Putting surfaces are 7,500 square feet on average, but Riviera's fairways annually are among the stingiest to split, so the targets need to be a little larger than other courses. Anyone who finds as many as eight (of 14) fairways per round is beating the historical average. Last year's field averaged 7.14 (or 50.97 percent), fourth-lowest of all courses that season. Hitting the greens on approach and on the par 3s is no bargain, either. Last year's average of 10.11 per round was second-lowest among all courses. It cannot be expected for a golfer who descended with inconsistent ball-striking to find a level of success with it here. En route to victory a year ago, Adam Scott hit the short grass off the tee just 23 of 56 times (to rank T63), but he led the field in averaging 13 GIR per round. Forever the ball-striker, he used his length (eighth in distance of all drives at 300.9 yards) to finish third in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green. Riviera's three par 5s are the soft underbelly as Nos. 1, 11 and 17 surrendered a scoring average of 4.56 last year to rank 10th-easiest of 41 courses in 2019-20, but Scott was a middling T37 in par-5 scoring. Instead, he rose to the challenge on the difficult par 4s, ranking third. While the par-3 sixth hole catches the eye with a bunker in its center, the par-4 10th is the signature hole. Avid fans of golf already are aware of that, but even they might be surprised that the 315-yard beauty is easier than a few egos inside the ropes might let on. It's a fact that No. 10 was the easiest par 4 at Riviera in four of the last five years, including in each of the last two. Scott birdied it in each of the first three rounds before settling for a par in the finale last year. The overarching message is that Riviera is as firm and fair as it is consistent. In other words, returning competitors know exactly what to expect. There are no tricks. In general, the aforementioned data could apply to every edition in which the weather cooperates, as it often does in sunny Southern California. This week's forecast is almost identical to last year's with daytime highs in the mid-to-upper 60s and only passing clouds, if any. The only difference is that wind might be a little fresher this week, but the course rests 1-2 miles from the ocean, so it's protected from the unrelenting gusts hard on the shore. In line with its second edition as an invitational and elevated status, the winner again will be rewarded with a three-year PGA TOUR membership exemption (or extension of one season up to five if already exempt through 2023-24). What's new to this year's staging is that the champion will receive 550 FedExCup points instead of the customary 500. The same bump will apply to the winners of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard and the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide. 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: Power Rankings TUESDAY*: Sleepers, Fantasy Insider SUNDAY: Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Medical Extensions, Rookie Watch * – Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM's Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, which also publishes on Tuesday.

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In the final round of the 2018 Valspar Championship, Paul Casey birdies seven of his first 13 holes, then pars in for a 65 and a one-shot win over Patrick Reed (68) and Tiger Woods (70). Welcome to the Monday Finish, where amid great Tiger fervor, Casey won for the second time on the PGA TOUR and the first since the 2009 Houston Open, moving from 39th to eighth in the FedExCup. Here are some further thoughts on the Valspar: FIVE OBSERVATIONS 1- If you want to get more out of your game, sometimes it helps to try less. Casey got into contention a lot last year only to struggle on Sundays. At the TOUR Championship, he was in the mix to win before shooting a final-round 73 to finish fifth. Eventually he realized he was grinding so hard, especially on the greens, that his perfectionism was getting in the way. He was even shutting and de-lofting the putter face. This year, Casey has tried to open the putter face while not getting himself so worked up on the greens. (Jordan Spieth would call it free-rollin’.) It certainly worked at the Valspar. Casey took just 21 putts Sunday, the lowest single-round total of his PGA TOUR career, and was +1.660 in strokes gained: putting on the day. “The way I strike the golf ball … I don’t stress about technique, I never have,â€� Casey said. “I figure everything out and I pick the target and hit it. If it’s a good shot, great. If it’s a bad one and went slightly off line, maybe I make a small adjustment and try not to do the same with the next one. I’ve never done with that the putting. I’ve always been super critical and try to have a great stroke. I’m approaching it the same way I approach the rest of the game. It’s carefree. “If it’s not, I’m not beating myself up,â€� he added. “I’m now striking the ball much better. My speed is infinitely better and I’m not shutting the putter face. And starting on line I can now read putts again. It’s pretty simple, but for so long I just couldn’t see it and trying to be perfect and trying to be better and the trying wasn’t getting anywhere. Getting in my own way.â€� 2- Birdies get the glamour, but pars save the day. Casey sizzled with the seven birdies and one bogey (at the difficult par-4 third hole), but after signing his card and beginning the long wait in the clubhouse, he was most delighted with his par saves at 16, 17 and 18. He missed all three greens in regulation, but chipped up and made knee-knocking par putts of 3 feet, 5 inches; 2 feet, 4 inches; and 5 feet, 2 inches. “The reason I’m happy, the way I cleaned up,â€� Casey said. “I putted brilliantly, the thing that has been holding me back for a couple seasons. Really good to hole the putts at 16, 17 and 18. It’s been a long time since I’ve holed three pressure putts like that in a row. I’m ecstatic about it.â€� 3- Tiger Woods (70) at least enjoyed some smaller victories. He moved to 43rd in the FedExCup and posted four straight sub-par rounds for the first time since THE NORTHERN TRUST in 2013. He also registered his 30th runner-up and 187th top-10 finish in 332 TOUR starts, and this week he heads to the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard, which he’s won eight times. (For more on his comeback and his performance at the Valspar, click here.) 4- Woods wasn’t the only player enjoying a big comeback at the Valspar. Jim Furyk, the 2010 Valspar champion, was playing on a sponsor invitation and shot a final-round 66 to finish solo seventh. It was the first top-10 finish for the 17-time TOUR winner since he finished T6 at The RSM Classic in 2016. At 47, Furyk is trying to bounce back from a disappointing 2017 even as he makes preparations to captain the U.S. Ryder Cup Team in Paris in the fall. 5- Sergio Garcia’s eight birdies Sunday was a tournament best for a single round, but he was left to lament what might have been were it not for his two bogeys, everything adding up to a 65 that left him in solo fourth. Garcia also didn’t capitalize on his first three rounds (70-72-69). “Unfortunately, I left myself too much to do today,â€� he said. “Played really, really nicely. I played nicely all week. Unfortunately, I didn’t really get anything out of my rounds the first three days and today could have been a really, really special round. You know, I probably wasted at least three shots on the front nine with a three-putt and a couple short misses for birdies.â€� FIVE INSIGHTS 1- Casey scrambled exceptionally well, getting up and down 82.14 percent of the time, third best in the field. He was also +.865 in strokes gained: putting (15th), and near the top in driving distance (301.6 yards, 17th) and proximity to the hole (35’ 10’’ for T22). His worst stat was driving accuracy (46.15 percent, T68). 2- Perhaps the winner’s nerve on the greens (just 21 putts in the final round) was helped by the fact that he hit nine of 13 fairways, by far his best of the week. Casey, 40, had hit just six, five and four fairways over the first three rounds, respectively. 3- Woods was attempting to match fellow 40-something Phil Mickelson’s victory at the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship the week before. In no particular order, Woods and Mickelson have won in back-to-back weeks on TOUR 10 times, most recently at the 2013 Farmers Insurance Open (Woods) and Waste Management Phoenix Open (Mickelson). 4- Patrick Reed (68) logged a lot of driving range time at the WGC-Mexico Championship, and it paid off at the Valspar. He matched Casey at 10-under before making bogey at the last. Reed’s sixth TOUR win, and first since THE NORTHERN TRUST in 2016, will have to wait. So, too, will atonement for the 2015 Valspar, when Reed and Sean O’Hair lost a playoff to Jordan Spieth. 5- Sam Burns came into the Valspar with 122 non-member FedExCup points, needing no worse than a two-way tie for third to earn the 147 points that would equal No. 150 on last year’s list (Rick Lamb, 269 points). Alas, Burns finished T12 and remains 88 points of Special Temporary Membership. He’ll play on a sponsor invitation at this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard. TOP VIDEOS

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