Steve Wheatcroft surprises with opening 62 at John Deere Classic

From Tiger putting on a show to Gary Woodland’s late run to large crowds for the Tour’s first-ever stop in Japan, a lot happened in Round 1 at the Zozo Championship.

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The matches felt a little closer Friday in the Presidents Cup. And then Max Homa made two big putts that gave the U.S. Team the same outcome. In the third straight Fourballs match that went the distance, Homa poured in a 12-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole for a 1-up lead. After Taylor Pendrith gave the International Team hope with a birdie on the 18th hole, Homa matched him with another 12-foot birdie putt for the win. That gave the Americans another session by a 4-1 margin, stretching their lead to 8-2 going into the weekend at Quail Hollow and making another U.S. victory start to look inevitable. For the second straight time on home soil, the powerful U.S. Team goes into a double session on Saturday with a mathematical chance to win the cup. “This is insane,” Homa said after he and Billy Horschel outlasted the Canadian duo of Pendrith and Corey Conners. “To come down to the 18th two days in a row, man, what a day. Billy made some amazing putts. I just wanted to help him.” Former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush were on hand at Quail Hollow Club, and while it looked for a moment as though the International Team might make a game of it, the deficit at the end of the day was as daunting as ever. The lone point for the International Team came from two ties. Scottie Scheffler had a 10-foot birdie putt for the win on the 18th, and only a few blades of grass kept it from dropping as he and Sam Burns halved the match with Sungjae Im and Sebastian Munoz. Cameron Young had a 25-foot putt for the win that missed. He and Kevin Kisner settled for a half-point against Mito Pereira and Christiaan Bezuidenhout in the only match where the International Team ever led. The strength of the U.S. Team came from a pair of dynamic partnerships. Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele were 5-up at the turn and easily held on for a 3-and-2 win over Hideki Matsuyama and Tom Kim. Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas improved to 6-2 as a team in Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup matches, leading from the fourth hole in a 2-and-1 victory over the Australian pair of Adam Scott and Cameron Davis. As usual, Spieth and Thomas were far from dull. They were 2 up with five holes to play when Thomas hit 6-iron to 2 feet on the par-3 14th over water to a back pin for birdie. And right when it looked as though the International side might get closer, Spieth was up to his tricks. His approach on the 15th — the 18th hole when Quail Hollow hosts the Wells Fargo Championship — was headed for the stream when it hit the rocks and caromed over the green into the rough. He chipped 15 feet by, and then holed that par to halve the hole. The Spieth-Thomas and Cantlay-Schauffele teams, formed as much by friendship as their games, are 2-0 this week and are tough to beat no matter whom the International Team sends out against them. The passion came from the Presidents Cup rookies. Homa’s goal all year was to make the team and he was among six captain’s picks by Davis Love III. Homa won twice last season, and started the new season with an unlikely title defense at Silverado in the Fortinet Championship when he chipped in for birdie on the final hole and Danny Willett three-putted from 4 feet. He flew across the country from California and looked energized, particularly at the end of the day with another point on the board for the Americans. It was the second straight day Homa was in the final match, meaning the entire U.S. Team was there to see it. “It’s surreal to have 10 of the best golfers I’ve ever seen in my life watching you and you’ve got to help them,” Homa said. “It’s a heavy weight. But it’s also really fun.” Saturday is pivotal at every Presidents Cup, and it could be the last chance for the International Team to get back into the game with four matches of Foursomes in the morning and four matches of Fourballs in the afternoon. The U.S. Team would have to win seven of them and halve the other to clinch the cup, which sounds unlikely except for who they have and how they’re playing. They came within one match of doing that at Liberty National in 2017.

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The PGA TOUR takes a break from stroke play for the Zurich Classic of New Orleans at TPC Louisiana. The course is a par 72, measuring 7,425 yards and continues on Bermuda grass this week. Last year, the tournament was canceled due to COVID-19, but this will be the fourth year of the team format. There are 80 teams of two in the field this week, and the top 35 teams and ties will make the cut. Teams will play best ball during the first and third rounds, while the second and fourth rounds will be alternate shot. This week will be a touch different when it comes to DraftKings scoring. In a team event like this, every golfer in the field will be available to roster, similar to a stroke-play event, but only one player from that team can be in your lineup. Each player from that team will receive the same points for each round this week, no matter the format. The defending champions are Jon Rahm and Ryan Palmer. STRATEGY TPC Louisiana will be the second Pete Dye course in a row, which means Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green will be a priority this week. With that said, there are minimal stats when it comes to team events other than how players/teams played in this event over the past three years, and how well teams potentially played in events like the QBE Shootout. The issue with trying to parse through the data mentioned above is the efficacy and accuracy of the stats and which golfers from those teams were playing well or not playing well. All of this is a long-winded way of saying stats might not help us as much as they usually do every week. Even though the format is different, players and teams will still need to be great with their ball-striking and ride a hot putter, similar to all Dye courses. They’ll also need to stay aggressive on the best-ball rounds when scores should be going low. Players don’t necessarily have to come into this week with great form; we’ve seen Kevin Kisner and Scott Brown do well here, finishing T5 in 2019 and T15 the previous year and not come in with great form. Past finishes at TPC Louisiana when it was a stroke-play event, past Pete Dye success and, of course, current form are other ways to help us decide which teams to chase this week. Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $600K Resurgence [$200K to 1st] GOLFERS TO CONSIDER Billy Horschel/Sam Burns +2200 to Win ($10,500 on DraftKings) Both players were positive in Tee-to-Green last week at the RBC Heritage, a Pete Dye course. Horschel recorded a top 25 at Harbour Town and just won the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play at Austin Country Club, another Dye course. Burns is starting to look like how he played leading into the Genesis Invitational earlier this season when he finished third. Last week, Burns gained 6.36 strokes Tee-to-Green (12th in the field), 3.1 of which came from his irons. Burns is also returning to New Orleans, where he played his college golf at Louisiana State University. Both guys are excellent Bermuda putters, and Horschel has already won this event in 2018 with Scott Piercy. Jason Kokrak/Pat Perez +6600 to Win ($8,300 on DraftKings) It wasn’t long ago that we saw Perez and Kokrak dominate the charity challenge at Sedgefield CC, beating Charl Schwartzel and Brendan Grace. All kidding aside, these two are good friends and could be great partners this week given how well their games match up. Kokrak is playing unbelievable, with three top 10s in his past four events, and ranks sixth in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green over his previous 12 rounds. Although Perez isn’t playing like his teammate, he finished runner-up here in 2018 with Jason Dufner. Perez can help out his teammate on the greens, where he’s much better than Kokrak on Bermuda. Perez has gained Off-the-Tee in six of his past seven measured tournaments and can get scorching hot with his putter when he (or his team) is playing well. Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $600K Resurgence [$200K to 1st] Put your knowledge to the test. Sign up for DraftKings and experience the game inside the game. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) (IL). Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (NJ/WV/PA/MI), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (NH/CO), 1-800-BETS OFF(IA), 1-888-532-3500 (VA) or call/text TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN). 21+ (18+ NH). CO/IL/IN/IA/NH/NJ/PA/TN/VA/WV/MI only. Eligibility restrictions apply. See draftkings.com/sportsbook for full terms and conditions. I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and user (my username is reidtfowler) and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. 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