From Tiger to Todd, why the fall season in golf mattered so much

Tiger Woods called the Bush name “synonymous with golf.” Said Tiger: “Anyone who’s ever been around him knows how much he loved his golf and how much he supported it and how much we’re going to miss him.”

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LOS ANGELES - Officials were forced to suspend play early in the third round of The Genesis Invitational after high winds saw marked balls rolling off most of the greens Saturday morning. The last time play was suspended for high winds on the PGA TOUR was the 2015 Open Championship at St Andrews. The last non-major stoppage for wind was the 2014 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. All but the final group of Sam Burns, Tyler McCumber and Jason Kokrak had begun their Saturday before a decision was reached to halt proceedings as gusts hit near 30mph - an untenable situation given the hard and fast nature of Riviera Country Club's greens. "Absolutely the right thing to do here, these greens pretty much are unplayable right now with this kind of wind," International Presidents Cup captain Trevor Immelman reported on Golf Channel. Officials expect the next announcement on the possibility of a resumption to come at 11:30 a.m. local time. In the meantime, the agronomy staff are watering the putting surfaces trying to stimulate a little growth to slow them down a fraction. Burns remains the leader after his record 12-under 130 over the first two rounds gave him a five-shot overnight buffer. However moments before the suspension, Max Homa pulled within four thanks to a near albatross on the par-5 1st hole. Homa's approach shot rode the high winds expertly before finishing mere inches from the cup, allowing a tap in eagle to move him to 8 under as the horn blew in the distance. Birdies on the first by Jordan Spieth and Wyndham Clark moved them to 7 under to join McCumber, Kokrak, Joaquin Niemann and reigning FedExCup champion Dustin Johnson in third place. Johnson will resume his round with a 16-foot eagle try from the fringe of the first green. Yesterday the current world No. 1 pinpointed the par-5s as his window to claw back at Burns' lead having only made one birdie on six attempts in the opening two rounds. He is yet to birdie the opening hole despite it playing as the easiest of the week but should rectify that on resumption. "One under is not going to get the job done over the weekend (on those holes). Definitely need to take advantage of the par 5s the next couple days," Johnson said Friday night. "I like my position. I’m five back, but on this golf course there’s only one guy in front of me."

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If you thought that last week was easy, good. This week ain’t. No, I didn’t have Max Homa at the Wells Fargo Championship. No one did. Seriously. Zero gamers in PGA TOUR Fantasy One & Done selected him. However, Justin Rose, Paul Casey, Rickie Fowler and Sergio Garcia all finished inside the top five and two-time champ Rory McIlroy checked in at T8. Save Homa’s storybook achievement, it was chalk central in the Queen City. Perhaps one day Trinity Forest will boast a comparable Who’s Who of go-to talent in our format. Until then, we default to logical analysis, sound reasoning and, of course, the spinning dartboard. Rarely does a first-time defending champion who was a rookie when he prevailed deserve attention in fantasy circles, but Aaron Wise defies conventional, ahem, wisdom. Obviously, no one has better course history, but he’s also arriving with solid form in tow. Still, I’m advising him as a tail of a tandem in two-man games. No need to lead. If you need to swing from your heels and Brooks Koepka is burning a hole in your chinos, then I’m not going to stop ya. Just remember that he’s defending two of the remaining three majors and he plays his best in them. He’s available to me and I didn’t think twice at pulling the trigger, but I’m the pacesetter. His offense will be a dandy defense later. Marc Leishman sits atop my Power Rankings and he’s also on my board, but I’m leaving only for my lineup in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf. While the Aussie has lifted into the category of the consistently strong, his core value is a reliability to stay hot. If I could use Charles Howell III again, I wouldn’t hesitate. Alas, I’m left with merely endorsing him emphatically if you still possess the pleasure. He connected four sub-70s here en route to a T9 last year and projects to do the same this week. He’s done nothing to suggest that his comfort level dipping deep into red numbers has been adversely affected. Scott Piercy is beside CH3 in terms of my confidence in this format. He’s been fantastic all season and you already know how much he loves to go low. I already invested confidently in his title defense at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans (T13). Sungjae Im leads the PGA TOUR in rounds under par and he’s performed well on all kinds of tests. If lightning is to strike twice for rookies at Trinity Forest, he’s most likely to be raising the 1-iron overhead. (He’s yet another who I’ve already exhausted.) Holster Hideki Matsuyama, Jordan Spieth, Henrik Stenson and Patrick Reed. There’s too much random to the madness this week. I was torn between Keith Mitchell and Rory Sabbatini, a couple of guys who should present as complementary pieces in two-man formats and not the primary or the only selection, such as in our game. However, both strut in with momentum and success at Trinity Forest last year. In fact, if both are available to you in your two-man league, there’s your ticket. Thomas Pieters, Seamus Power and Scottie Scheffler are calculated fliers for two-man teams as well. 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 2018-19. 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). To present weighted confidence in real time, numerical values will not change all season no matter how many tournament remain listed for each golfer. All are pending golfer commitment. Daniel Berger … Travelers (1) Rafa Cabrera Bello … Wyndham (4) Branden Grace … Byron Nelson (5); U.S. Open (4) Bill Haas … Charles Schwab (2); Wyndham (6) Brian Harman … Charles Schwab (1); Travelers (5); John Deere (4) Brooks Koepka … PGA Championship (2; defending); Charles Schwab (6); U.S. Open (1; two-time defending); Open Championship (8) Martin Laird … Barracuda (2) Marc Leishman … Byron Nelson (6); Memorial (4); Travelers (3); Open Championship (8) Hideki Matsuyama … PGA Championship (13); Memorial (8); U.S. Open (14); Wyndham (7); TOUR Championship (5) Ryan Moore … Memorial (11); Travelers (6); John Deere (8); Wyndham (2); TOUR Championship (9) Kevin Na … Charles Schwab (3); Wyndham (5) Ryan Palmer … Charles Schwab (4) Scott Piercy … Canadian (7; last winner at Hamilton in 2012) Patrick Reed … PGA Championship (4); U.S. Open (3); Travelers (7) Jordan Spieth … PGA Championship (7); Charles Schwab (5); Memorial (13); U.S. Open (4); Travelers (9); Open Championship (6); TOUR Championship (8) Henrik Stenson … PGA Championship (4); Open Championship (6); Wyndham (8); TOUR Championship (7) Jimmy Walker … Byron Nelson (6)

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