Insider info on Hideki Matsuyama’s unique Scotty Cameron Teryllium prototype putter

LA QUINTA, Calif. — Andrew Landry regrouped to win The American Express after losing a six-stroke lead on the back nine Sunday. Landry broke a tie with Abraham Ancer with a 7-foot birdie putt on the par-3 17th hole and made a 6-footer on the par-4 18th for a 5-under 67 and a two-stroke victory. Related: Leaderboard | Amateur with one arm makes hole-in-one  “That was probably the shot of the tournament for me,” Landry said about the 17th. “Just to be able to go over there and, to that right hole location, and just hold one up and hit a good distance and have a 7-, 8-footer to look at. … Thankfully, it went in and kind of made 18 a little bit easier.” Landy won the pro-am event at PGA West two years ago after losing a playoff to Jon Rahm. “This is a golf course that has suited me very well in the past,” Landry said. “And just to look back on some of the things that happened a couple years ago and then now, just to be able to finally get it done. I didn’t want to have to go back into a playoff again and we’re running out of daylight, so it’s good to finally get the job done again.” The 32-year-old Texan has two PGA TOUR victories, also winning the 2018 Valero Texas Open. He jumped up 161 spots to 17th in the FedExCup standings.  “That’s why you just got to keep grinding it out,” Landry said. “We all search for these weeks, and the majority of players out here are going to have them, four, five, six times a year and top-10 players are going to have them a little bit more often. So, these are the weeks that we search for and we just continue to just play our ball and keep doing what we do, and hopefully they come sooner than later.” Trying to become the third Mexican winner in PGA TOUR history and first since 1978, Ancer matched the Stadium Course record with a 63. Playing two groups ahead of Landry, Ancer birdied the par-5 16th and the island-green 17th and parred the 18th. “All week, really, I hit the ball great off the tee and iron shots, and in the first three rounds, I feel like I didn’t score as low as I should have for how good I hit the ball,” Ancer said. “But stayed patient and today the putts started to fall in.” Playing two groups ahead of Landry, Ancer birdied No. 16 and 17 and parred the 18th, missing from 35 feet and saving par with a 4 1/2-footer. He realized he was tied for lead just before teeing off on 17. “I wasn’t paying much attention to the leaderboard,” Ancer said. “And then that’s when I noticed and I was like, `All right, well, we got to make two other birdies.’ I made the putt there on 17, which was big, and then just couldn’t make it happen on 18. But I played good, man. I’m proud of how I played.” After missing the cut in seven of his first eight starts this season, Landry appeared to be cruising to victory when he birdied the first three holes on the back nine to open the six-shot lead. But he bogeyed the next three holes, made a par on the 16th that felt like another bogey, and was tied when Ancer ran in a 25-footer on 17. Landry finished at 26-under 262. He opened with a 66 on the Stadium Course, shot 64 in the second round at La Quinta Country Club and had a 65 on Saturday on PGA West’s Jack Nicklaus Tournament Course for a share of the third-round lead with Scottie Scheffler — four strokes ahead of third-place Rickie Fowler. The anticipated duel between Landy and Scheffler fizzled on the first six holes. Scheffler bogeyed the par-4 first after his drive rolled back down a hill into a large divot. He also dropped strokes on the par-5 fifth and long par-3 sixth to fall four strokes behind Landry. On the water-guarded fifth, his aggressive play with a fairway wood from a downhill lie near a right-side bunker went well left and, after a long chip, he missed a 3-footer for par. He also failed to get up-down-for par on the 234-yard sixth hole after hooking his tee shot. Scheffler shot 70, briefly giving Landry a scare with an eagle on 16, to finish third at 23 under. The 23-year-old former University of Texas player is in his first season on the PGA TOUR after winning twice and topping the Korn Ferry Tour Finals and overall points lists last season. Fowler had a 71 in the final group with Landry and Scheffler to tie for 10th at 18 under. From nearby Murrietta, Fowler played the event for the first time in six years.

Click here to read the full article…

Click here to read the full article…

The PGA TOUR will travel southeast to Hilton Head, South Carolina, for the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links. The course will play as a par 71, measuring 7,121 yards, and will be putt on poa trivialis overseed. 132 golfers will be in the field at press time. Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $1M Pitch + Putt [$250K to 1st] STRATEGY This Pete Dye design is not as innocuous as it appears on paper. The fairways are tree-lined and dogleg, which will cause players to use more irons and driving metals off the tee to get the ball in the fairways. Golfers will need to deploy a solid strategy off the tee, with placement and approach paramount on all Dye courses. Golfers should also have a decent short game with smaller greens (3,700 sq. foot average) than the PGA TOUR average. The smaller landing areas have resulted in a higher scrambling percentage than the PGA TOUR average from the lower greens in regulation hit rate. The proximity to the coast can also present challenging conditions if inclement weather is in the forecast. Golfers striking the ball well won’t find Harbour Town Golf Links difficult, even though it presents some challenges with its design. Eagles are few and far between, but the three par 5s should be reasonably easy to walk away with a birdie, recording a 40% birdie rate on average across all three. There are also two par 4s under 400 yards, which players will need to score on when given the opportunity. Also, we see some correlations to the Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club and the Wells Fargo at Quail Hollow, both courses in the Carolinas. We also see leaderboard crossover with the Sony Open in Hawaii at Waialae Country Club. What is the best strategy to win at daily fantasy golf this week? Look into cheap sleepers this week. In 2019, eight of the top-10 in DraftKings scoring were below $7,000; three golfers fit this trend last year. In 2018, Satoshi Kodaira was $6,600, and in 2017, 10 of the top 11 in DraftKings scoring were below $8,000. LINEUP TIPS Corey Conners ($9,700) Another top-10 performance at Augusta National last week should vault Conners’ projected roster percentage this week, and that’s OK. Two top-25s and a top-10 at The RSM Classic (Sea Island Resort), two top-12s and a top-3 at the comparable Sony Open in Hawaii (Waialae CC) and a top-4 last year are all signs the smooth-swinging Canadian could be trending to another solid performance. Conners finished fourth in tee-to-green last week (+9.51) and is first in strokes gained total on Pete Dye courses over the previous 24 rounds. Adam Hadwin ($7,600) Two top-10s and a top-5 in his last three starts are much to do with his ball-striking, gaining an average of just under four strokes with his irons and a total of 17.3 strokes tee-to-green over his previous two starts. His best finish at Harbour Town is 22nd (2016), which came from a top-4 performance with his approach (+7.3), but a poor outing on the greens, losing 4.3 with the flat stick (12th-lowest). His putting has been solid this season, and he’s top-5 in greens in regulation gained over his last two events. Harbour Town seems like the perfect golf course for Hadwin’s game, even though he’s never finished inside the top-20. Hopefully, that changes this week. Kevin Na ($7,800) No one was better with his irons at Augusta National last week, gaining 9.44 strokes on approach for the tournament. Just over 5.5 strokes were gained from his play on the weekend, resulting in a T14, his third-straight top-15 at the Masters. A win at last year’s Sony Open in Hawaii and a top-5 with two top-10s here make him one of the best values in this range. Patton Kizzire ($7,100) Even though he missed the weekend at Valero, he was still able to gain strokes through approach, making it eight of the last nine events being positive with his irons. His short game hasn’t been great, but we’ve seen tournaments where he’s been able to gain a lot of strokes on the greens. Kizzire’s +7.8 strokes on the greens at THE PLAYERS Championship was his third-highest putting week in a measured event since he’s been on TOUR. The Sea Island, Georgia, resident should feel comfortable here, which is similar to what he plays at home. Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $1M Pitch + Putt [$250K to 1st] Put your knowledge to the test. Sign up for DraftKings and experience the game inside the game. Place your golf bets at DraftKings Sportsbook or by downloading the DraftKings Sportsbook app. All views expressed are my own. I am an employee of DraftKings and am ineligible to play in public DFS or DKSB contests. The contents contained in this article do not constitute a representation that any particular strategy will guarantee success. All customers should use their own skill and judgment in building lineups. 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/IN/MI/NJ/PA/WV/WY), 1-800-NEXT STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (CO/NH), 888-789-7777/visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), 1-877-770-STOP (7867) (LA), 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY), visit OPGR.org (OR), call/text TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN), or 1-888-532-3500 (VA). 21+ (18+ NH/WY). Physically present in AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/LA/MI/NH/NJ/NY/OR/PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. Eligibility restrictions apply. See draftkings.com/sportsbook for full terms and conditions.

Click here to read the full article…