Justin Rose looks to buck front runner curse at Torrey Pines

In his third PGA TOUR win, 24-year-old Jon Rahm is the new face of the Wyndham Rewards Top 10 this week. Rahm, partnered with Texan Ryan Palmer, claimed the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in impressive fashion. It lifted the Spanish star from 23rd to sixth in the FedExCup standings, putting him within striking distance of Matt Kuchar at the top as the season starts to heat up. With Rahm’s jump there was some minor shuffling inside the Wyndham Rewards Top 10. The top five – led by Kuchar – remain the same, but Brooks Koepka, Gary Woodland, Rickie Fowler and Charles Howell III all drop a spot. Former FedExCup champion Justin Thomas is the man who drops out. The top 10 in the standings after the Wyndham Championship — the final event of the PGA TOUR’s regular season — will receive a portion of the $10 million bonus in the new Wyndham Rewards Top 10 competition. First place after the Wyndham Championship will receive $2 million, followed by $1.5 million for second, all the way to $500,000 for 10th place, the final spot eligible for a bonus. Palmer moved from 50th to 19th, but the biggest jump was from Matt Every who claimed his first top five result since winning in 2015. Every climbed 35 spots from 137th to 102nd. LOOKING AHEAD Going into this week’s Wells Fargo Championship, five of the top 10 players in the Wyndham Rewards Top 10 are in the field. Rory McIlroy, Paul Casey, Gary Woodland, Rickie Fowler and Charles Howell III will all be looking to consolidate their place amongst the seasons best. None of them can catch Kuchar’s lead this week but they all have a shot at moving to second place. Click here for full coverage of the Wyndham Rewards Top 10

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Here are nine tidbits from the first round of the Quicken Loans National that gamers can use tomorrow, this weekend or down the road. TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm hosts for the second time and measures 7,107 yards (Par-70).   KNOW THY ENEMY These were the top-10 selected golfers in the PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf game presented by SERVPRO. Perfect scoring conditions greeted the morning wave as Andrew Landry tied the professional course record with his bogey-free 63. The afternoon side wasn’t bad either, as another 63 by J.J. Spaun gave us co-leaders after the opening round. The weather will just be hotter tomorrow and the winds relatively similar, so there won’t be a tactical advantage on tee times. The afternoon folks will need to be properly hydrated! PEOPLE’S CHOICE J.B. Holmes isn’t a name we’ve seen at the top of the list or even on the list in recent memory. Gamers are riding the wave of hot, albeit deliberate, play from the big hitter from Kentucky as he’s hit the podium in his last two events. He found 10 fairways and 10 GIR but could only get up-and-down on four of the eight he missed. The ones he did hit left him 117th out of 120 players in proximity. His best round in five here is 71 so gamers will have a decision whether or not to use the bench in Round 2. This was only his second round in the black in his last 17 rounds. RECORD DUO Landry and Spaun both used seven birdies without squaring a bogey to set the first round pace. Since his victory at the Valero Texas Open, another difficult track, Landry has played just two of six weekends and his best payday is T65. He MC last week 81-67 but that was a distant memory today. Spaun popped up at Trinity Forest where he opened with 64 and closed with 63 to share third. Gamers hoping to ride that wave were smacked with MC, MC and T47 in his last three outings. Spaun led the field in Round 1 in SG: off the tee as he split 12-of-14 fairways (T1). He fired 73-78 here last year to MC. HOST WITH THE MOST Tiger Woods finally gets a chance to play at his own tournament, and he looked to create some momentum with a new putter in the bag. Gamers remember that he blistered Memorial tee-to-green but made absolutely nothing. The putter didn’t solve all of his problems as he lost over one shot on the greens but his tee-to-green game wasn’t on point either. The greatest part of Woods’ game is his ability to grind. He wiped out a double with a pair of birdies and added 15 pars to sign for 70 (E). An early start on fresh greens should kick-start the putter in Round 2.  HOOK ‘EM That sound you hear every Thursday is Beau Hossler. For the 10th event running his Round 1 scorecard is in red figures. For the third event in a row it has been 66 or better has his six birdies and one bogey added up to 65 (T5) today. Finishing the job is the next step as he’s only hit the top 10 in one of those three events, T2 last week at TPC River Highlands. He hasn’t MC in this stretch either so this isn’t smoke or mirrors. CIAO! Francesco Molinari made his way into the top 10, and rightfully so as gamers are paying attention. He enters the week in an excellent form as his last three worldwide paychecks have been for a win, second and T25. If the main requirement this week is navigating this track tee-to-green it shouldn’t be any surprise he opened with 67. BRAKES PUMPED While 71 (+1) didn’t knock Kyle Stanley out of contention, it surely wasn’t the start gamers were expecting from the defending champion. Driving wasn’t the issue as he found 12-of-14 fairways but his approach play saw him check in at No. 98. The good news is he’s third on TOUR in GIR so this goes down as an aberration for me and I’m expecting normal service to resume tomorrow.  WALK THE LINE Jimmy Walker has played great for almost three months, and that’s why his 74 in Round 1 was surprising. Marc Leishman only hit three fairways and shot 67, so scoring here can happen. Walker found just seven fairways but checked in at No. 111 in SG: putting and only saved par in three of seven chances missing GIR. He opened on No. 10 with an unplayable and a water ball for double-bogey seven so it could have been worse! He’ll need to make more than one birdie in Round 2. STUDY HALL The Round 1 scoring average was 69.992 (-0.008) as opposed to 71.203 in the inaugural year last year. The 18-hole lead last year was 65. No wind helps! There were eight bogey-free rounds all of last year as this course was the most difficult (non-major) on TOUR. There were five on Friday as red-hot Andrew Putnam (64), Seamus Power (66) and Joel Dahmen (66) joined Landry on Spaun in the clean card club.  C.T. Pan (67) broke his driver on No. 14, but still found a way to birdie that hole and the next two. His eight birdies for the round led the field. He gets to put in a new driver on Friday.

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Martin Laird … With his reputation as a long-hitting, tee-to-green specialist, you’d expect him to thrive at Glen Abbey, and indeed he has with a T22 (2008), a T16 (2009) and a T2 (2016) on the board. He’s been a solid putter as well for the last four seasons, but the Scot is streaky and he enters in a mini-slump, so expectations are elevated that he’ll reconnect with form where he has time and again. Steve Wheatcroft … Ignore the season-long stats and his position in the FedExCup standings. Instead, put your faith in his feels right now. Almost always prime for a shootout, he’s comin’ in hot with a T12 at the John Deere Classic and a T10 at Barbasol. The 40-year-old also is no stranger to Glen Abbey where he’s 3-for-3 with a T5 in 2016. Keith Mitchell … Sat out the Barbasol Championship after placing T7 at the John Deere Classic, so he’s not only rested, he’s in form. He’s also a terrific fit this week. Glen Abbey’s targets are below average in size. That benefits guys who don’t rate well statistically with the putter. Cue the rookie who ranks eighth in strokes gained: off-the-tee and 31st in birdies-or-better percentage, both of which attributes for scoring. Cameron Champ … There may not be a hotter player in the field than the 23-year-old sponsor exemption. He’s fresh off his breakthrough title at the Web.com Tour’s Utah Championship, which was his sixth consecutive top-11 finish. He’s third on the circuit’s money list, so we’ll see him on the PGA TOUR regularly next season. The lanky product of Texas A&M also leads the Web.com Tour in distance off the tee, total driving, ball-striking and par-5 scoring. Showcasing his knack for scoring for which he slots second, he’s also fifth in greens hit and second in converting those chances into par breakers. Austin Connelly … It’s impossible to comprehend the pressure on Canadians to chase victory in their national open. For one, it’s why you’ll be reminded again this week that Pat Fletcher in 1954 is the last Canuck to prevail. Containing oneself while national pride is bursting isn’t standard operating procedure in most weeks. The other challenge is simple: the RBC Canadian Open is a PGA TOUR event distributing the full allocation of FedExCup points. That draws a terrific field from all over year after year. The 21-year-old plays under the Canadian flag for which 21 are represented this week at Glen Abbey. While he’s slowed after a successful foray on the European Tour in 2017, he’s still managed three top 20s in his last 11 starts. When locked in, he’s most dangerous off the tee and on the greens.

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