Sanderson Farms Championship, Round 3: Leaderboard, tee times, TV times

Man, it’s good to be back. That goes both with you and as it concerns our motley task force vying to take down 2016-17 champion Jonathan Wall. Not unlike your experience with fellow opponents, some of us don’t connect unless there’s action, so the Sentry Tournament of Champions couldn’t roll around soon enough. Before we dive into the headliners among the 34-man field at Kapalua, two matters of business need to be tackled. • The Puerto Rico Open has been modified to an unofficial charity event over the first weekend of March. (It will return as an official event in 2019.) Proceeds will go to the ongoing recovery due to the devastation from Hurricane Maria. It’s a terrific decision for obvious reasons, but the tournament has been removed from the choices in PGA TOUR Fantasy One & Done presented by SERVPRO. There are now 48 events contributing to the game in 2017-18. • Future Possibilities below has been enhanced. In addition to potential spots to burn all listed, you’ll now see my subjective ranking of those tournaments (that are still listed chronologically). This additional layer is meant only as a guide when planning long-term, but it also could help break some ties down the road. When the PGA TOUR Champions opens its 2018 season on Jan. 18-20 for the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai, the dedicated section for those guys will be presented similarly. This is to say that if you’re new to that game and not as familiar with the 50-and-over circuit, it will have immediate added value. You’ll see. Shifting to the here and now, with not even three dozen pegging it on Maui where there is no cut, your only interest might be to learn why I’m not on board a usual suspect, but if you read my Power Rankings, you’ve pretty much gleaned where my allegiances lie. Cross off first-timers. The popular dots connected between Kapalua and Augusta National what with their dastardly greens run parallel to the same for first-timers. If you’re a veteran, you know to avoid the wide-eyed at the Masters and stick with experience. This week is no different. That’s because it matters. That leaves 20 options. Scanning Future Possibilities, five are accompanied with bolded mentions that the Sentry TOC should be considered. None other than defending champion Justin Thomas is tagged with the only “1” among them, but his collection of smart sites runs seven deep, so feel free to remain patient. In a vacuum, only Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler, Dustin Johnson, Hideki Matsuyama and Marc Leishman would generate the automatic selection if this tournament was slotted later in the season, but even then, the promise of slapping something significant on the board begs you to steer into a next-tier talent. This is why I’ve circled Brendan Steele. At No. 8 in the Power Rankings and with prior experience at Kapalua, including a T6 just last year, that’s enough for me. He’d be my pick for the Barracuda Championship in seven months, but he’s already eligible for the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational contested concurrently (which explains why the Barracuda is omitted from his list of events in Future Possibilities). Brian Harman was the only other in the field who tempted me, but I want to keep him available for one of the next two weeks. Two-man gamers can ignore the rule against exhausting a first-timer. Give Xander Schauffele and Cameron Smith consideration as your tail of the tandem. FUTURE POSSIBILITIES NOTE: Select golfers committed to the tournament are listed alphabetically. Future tournaments are sorted chronologically and reflect previous success on the courses on which the tournaments will be held in 2017-18. The numerical values in parentheses represent the order of relative confidence of where to use each golfer if multiple sites are listed (e.g. 1 for strongest, 2 for next-strongest and so on). All are pending golfer commitment. Daniel Berger … Waste Management (4); Houston (3); St. Jude (1; two-time defending); Travelers (2) Kevin Chappell … Valero (1; defending); St. Jude (4); WGC-Bridgestone (2); Dell Technologies (3) Jason Dufner … CareerBuilder (5); Valspar (1); DEAN & DELUCA (2); Memorial (3; defending); U.S. Open (4); Wyndham (6); TOUR Championship (7) Rickie Fowler … Sentry (2); Waste Management (5); Honda (1; defending); Houston (4); Masters (8); Wells Fargo (7); PLAYERS (9); WGC-Bridgestone (3); THE NORTHERN TRUST (10); Dell Technologies (6) Brian Harman … Sony (2); CareerBuilder (1); Arnold Palmer (5); DEAN & DELUCA (4); John Deere (3) Russell Henley … Sony (3); Houston (1; defending); Greenbrier (2) Billy Horschel … Honda (2); Arnold Palmer (5); Valero (3); St. Jude (1); TOUR Championship (4) Dustin Johnson … Sentry (4); Pebble Beach (2); Genesis (1; defending); WGC-Mexico (6; defending); WGC-Match Play (15; defending); Houston (14); Masters (3); Memorial (11); St. Jude (7); U.S. Open (12); Canadian (9); WGC-Bridgestone (13); PGA Championship (8); Dell Technologies (10); TOUR Championship (5) Kevin Kisner … Sony (2); Heritage (3); DEAN & DELUCA (1; defending); Memorial (4); Wyndham (5) Brooks Koepka … Sentry (6); WGC-Match Play (7); St. Jude (3); U.S. Open (1; defending); Open Championship (4); WGC-Bridgestone (5); PGA Championship (2) Marc Leishman … Sony (5); Arnold Palmer (3; defending); DEAN & DELUCA (6); Memorial (4); Travelers (2); Open Championship (1) Hideki Matsuyama … Sentry (2); Waste Management (1; two-time defending); Genesis (5); Arnold Palmer (9); Masters (3); Wells Fargo (10); PLAYERS (7); Memorial (8); U.S. Open (4); WGC-Bridgestone (6; defending) Pat Perez … Sony (3); Farmers (2); Pebble Beach (1); Houston (5); Heritage (4); Valero (6) Jon Rahm … Farmers (defending) Jordan Spieth … Sentry (3); Pebble Beach (5; defending); Valspar (8); Houston (11); Masters (1); Heritage (12); DEAN & DELUCA (2); Travelers (6; defending); John Deere (7); Open Championship (9; defending); WGC-Bridgestone (10); TOUR Championship (4) Brendan Steele … CareerBuilder (3); Waste Management (1); Honda (4); Valero (5); Wells Fargo (6); Travelers (2) Justin Thomas … Sentry (1; defending); Sony (3; defending); WGC-Mexico (5); Valspar (6); Wells Fargo (7); Dell Technologies (4; defending); TOUR Championship (2)

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Phil Mickelson has a two-shot lead as he tries to win again on the PGA Tour Champions. Mickelson was lagging behind until a three-hole stretch changed everything in the Constellation Furyk & Friends Invitational.

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As it was announced in late September, the Farmers Insurance Open is scheduled to start on Wednesday and finish on Saturday. The adjustment yields many benefits, including an impactful precedent, for it allows the third annual Advocates Pro Golf Association Tour’s Farmers Insurance Invitational to expand to two rounds and conclude on Sunday. Furthermore, like all four rounds of the PGA TOUR’s event at Torrey Pines, the APGA’s final round on the South Course also will be televised. For details of the annual TOUR stop in La Jolla, California, scroll past the projected contenders. The American Express champion Hudson Swafford, Jordan Spieth, Brooks Koepka, Daniel Berger, Scottie Scheffler and Dustin Johnson will be among the notables reviewed in Tuesday’s Draws & Fades (formerly the Fantasy Insider). The last time that Torrey Pines was in the spotlight, Jon Rahm was posing with the U.S. Open trophy in his possession. That was seven months ago. Only the South Course hosted, and it played to a par of 71 measuring 7,685 yards, but it returns to its customary stock par of 72 for the Farmers Insurance Open. And at 7,765 yards, it’s the longest course under the jurisdiction of the PGA TOUR. Every golfer in the field of 156 will have one pass at Torrey Pines North. It’s also a stock par 72, but it’s tipped at just 7,258 yards since Tom Weiskopf’s renovation in advance of the 2017 edition. Once the 36-hole cut of low 65 and ties falls, all who survive will play only the South Course in the third and final rounds. In last year’s first two rounds, the North averaged 70.131 to the South’s 73.955. The South would retreat to 73.340 by the conclusion of the tournament to establish a five-year high – it can’t be ruled out that the setup was more challenging because of early preparation for the U.S. Open – but that disparity proves why it’s imperative to go low on the North. Since it was renovated, the winners of the tournament have averaged 65.6 on the course. All five have scored lower than 70. Strictly for the record (because the trends likely have more to do with wind and weather than the rotation of tee times), after eight consecutive winners who played the North in the second round, each of the last three opened on the easier of the tandem. Saving the possibility (likelihood?) for a marine layer in the mornings, conditions will be favorable throughout the tournament, so only darkness could prevent the cut from occurring as scheduled on Thursday. Daytime highs in the 60s will govern the distance balls can fly, but wind isn’t forecast to be a primary threat. Primary rough could be as tall as 3½ inches. The combination bent/Poa greens are ready to roll to 12½ feet on the Stimpmeter. En route to reaching 14-under 274 for a five-stroke victory in 2021, Patrick Reed averaged just 11 greens in regulation per round to rank T63. However, in vintage fashion, he led the field in putts per GIR (1.591) and converting those chances into par breakers (20 of 44). (ShotLink is used only on the South, so cumulative Stroked Gained statistics and other lasered data applies to at most three rounds.) In addition to pacing the field in par-4 scoring, he finished T3 in par-5 scoring, the latter a fixture of success on par 72s. While next week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-am isn’t an open, professionals who finish inside the top 10 at the Farmers will gain entry via the top-10 provision. ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE PGATOUR.COM’s Rob Bolton recaps and previews every tournament from numerous perspectives. Look for his following contributions as scheduled. MONDAY: Power Rankings TUESDAY*: Sleepers, Draws & Fades SATURDAY/SUNDAY: Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Medical Extensions, Rookie Ranking * – 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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