From Brooks to Tiger, the biggest questions from the PGA

PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO If PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO forced binary decisions, a coin flip would break out at the FedEx St. Jude Classic. The difference between Brooks Koepka (at No. 1 in ownership percentage) and Phil Mickelson (No. 2) is only 10 gamers. That itself would be a wash against your competition if not for the fact they populate just shy of 55 percent of the rosters submitted (or just under 11 out of every 20). (Data is not maintained to express how many lineups include any combination of golfers.) The rest of the top 10 falls in line accordingly to expectations, although Francesco Molinari’s appearance was a welcome and well-timed surprise. He’s the only other golfer on more than half of the lineups. Peter Uihlein (No. 10) is a non-member, so he presents a good reminder that if he makes the cut, his equivalent of FedExCup points will be added by no later than Tuesday after the conclusion of the tournament. Notables not grouped below include Daniel Summerhays (12th, 14.9 percent), Ryan Palmer (17th, 8.2 percent), Charl Schwartzel (19th, 6.4 percent) and Jim Furyk (24th, 5.1 percent). NOTE: Rob’s Rating refers to where our Fantasy Insider slotted a golfer in his Power Rankings. Golfers in the Power Rankings and outside the top 10 in most owned PGA TOUR Fantasy One & Done presented by SERVPRO The surprise isn’t that Brooks Koepka, Francesco Molinari and Phil Mickelson are the top-three picks at the FedEx St. Jude Classic, it’s that they rank in that order. Since you play fantasy golf, you know that one of the most important variables outside of our control is a golfer’s schedule. So, even when you think and expect that Mickelson will commit to the tournament at TPC Southwind, there’s only one alternative: that he won’t. (Dustin Johnson qualifies for that very example this week, in fact.) So, it’s not outside the realm of possibility that gamers who like to plan ahead may have balked at saving him for this week and instead burned him earlier in the season. I’m among them. I exhausted Mickelson at Pebble Beach. Quite simply, one strategy is to strike when the iron is hot, or at least when you know you can. Notables outside the top 10 include Ian Poulter (12th, 1.3 percent), Peter Uihlein (13th, 1.2 percent), Russell Knox (15th, 1.0 percent) and Seung-Yul Noh (T20, 0.6 percent).

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GREENSBORO, N.C. — Brandt Snedeker held a three-stroke lead Saturday in the Wyndham Championship when the third round was suspended because of severe weather. Snedeker was 16 under for the tournament with 11 holes left in the round at the final event of the PGA TOUR’s regular season. Brian Gay was 13 under through 12 holes, and Trey Mullinax, Keith Mitchell, C.T. Pan and D.A. Points were another stroke back at varying stages of their rounds. Thirty players were still on the course when play was halted during the mid-afternoon with thunder booming and a threat of lightning. After a 3-hour, 23-minute delay, organizers chose to hold things up overnight and resume the round at 8 a.m. Sunday. When things resume, Snedeker — who opened with a 59 to become the first TOUR player this year and just the 10th ever to break 60 — will look to keep himself in position to contend for his ninth victory on tour and his first since the 2016 Farmers Insurance Open. The 2012 FedExCup champion won the tournament in 2007, the year before it moved across town to par-70 Sedgefield Country Club. Snedeker’s final 11 holes of the round could wind up being telling: In seven of the 10 previous years since the tournament’s move to this course, the third-round leader or co-leader has gone on to win. And every leader who finished the third round here at 16 under or better has wound up winning, including Henrik Stenson (16 under) last year and Si Woo Kim (18 under) in 2016. Snedeker started the day off strong, rolling in a 60-foot chip for birdie on the par-4 second hole, then pushed his lead to three strokes with a birdie on No. 5 that moved him to 16 under. But after he sank a short par putt on the seventh, thunder boomed and the horn sounded to stop play. Gay was 12 holes into a second consecutive strong round when the delay struck. After shooting a 63 in the second round, he had four birdies and an eagle on the par-5 fifth hole. He placed his 200-yard second shot 10 feet from the flagstick and sank the putt.

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NORTON, Mass. – Tiger Woods was about to pull the trigger on his opening tee shot at the Dell Technologies Championship when he backed off and broke into a smile. But the trademark grin would soon leave the 79-time PGA TOUR winners face. Onlookers assumed Woods was indecisive on what to use and had made an 11th hour strategy change – one they second guessed his choice when he hooked his ball well left and into a hazard. In fact decades of staring at the back of golf clubs had paid off just in time. Woods had grabbed what he thought was a 3-wood out of his bag but in fact was about to let fly with a 5-wood on the par-4 10th at TPC Boston, his opening hole. It wasn’t poor eyesight from the now 42-year-old, in fact his veteran caddie Joe LaCava had to take the blame. “That was pretty funny, actually, because I thought it was a 3-wood out. Joey had put the wrong head cover on from the range,â€� Woods revealed. “I had a 5-wood out, which I put down there, and I can’t hit it that far in the wind, I need a 3-wood. I went back to 3-wood, that’s why it looked like I switched, because I realized I had the wrong club in my hand.â€� Woods had sensed something a little different in his practice swings but it wasn’t until his head was over the ball he figured something wasn’t quite right. In the end he might have been better off sticking with what he had given the result. Woods would open with bogey and battle his way to a 1-over 72 to be five adrift of the early morning leaders. Through seven holes of his round he was languishing at 3-over and could have easily put his tournament under extreme threat. Instead he ground out some birdies to allow some hope for a better final three rounds and a move forward in the FedExCup. “I hung in there. And 18, 1, 2, 4, there’s some birdieable holes there, I thought if you could play those holes 4-under par, I’d turn this whole round around,â€� Woods said. “I made a few birdies there, which was nice. Couldn’t quite keep the momentum going throughout the front side, my back nine, and I felt if I felt momentum going, I could have finished under par today.â€� Woods sits 25th in the FedExCup, certain to advance to next week’s BMW Championship (top 70) but is certainly not locked into the TOUR Championship at East Lake in a few week’s time. If he is to hold on to a spot in the top 30 he will need to turn his fortunes around. “When I did miss it, I missed it in bad spots, didn’t have very good angles. But overall, no one is going low out there today,â€� Woods said somewhat optimistically. “It’s tricky with the wind blowing the way it is right now. Hopefully tomorrow I can miss in correct spots and make a few more birdies than I did today.â€� Despite an average day of ball-striking Woods took confidence from his new putter – which came after he ranked near last in the field for Strokes Gained: Putting at THE NORTHERN TRUST last week. Having used a mallet style putter for the last few months, Woods switched back to the Anser-style he won with for the majority of his career. Extensive work with TaylorMade had yielded a putter similar to the one he won 13 of his14 major championships. “I liked it,â€� Woods said of the TaylorMade TP Black Copper Juno he used just 26 times. “I putted beautifully today, I really did. I hit a lot of good putts, and just have to give myself more looks out of them. I didn’t hit the ball close enough today. “I felt good with it. We had to adjust the loft on it just a touch the other day. And I found that my feels came back, that releases something I’m very familiar with. And it felt good. “Trying to get a putter that looked exactly like my old putter, but it had the grooves in it to roll the ball better… And we finally got one.â€� 

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