Tiger-Peyton vs. Phil-Brady golf match to aid relief

After the stress, decompress. It’s valuable advice for anyone pursuing balance but it’s also the objective for the 56 golfers who made the cross-country trip from the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines to this week’s Travelers Championship. What they’ll find at TPC River Highlands is the easiest par 70 of the 2019-20 season. So, the breeze you feel isn’t courtesy of Mother Nature, it’s the collective exhale as the PGA TOUR descends in central Connecticut. However, come the weekend, tension again will rise, as will the intensity of the wind. Scroll past the projected contenders for more. RELATED: The First Look | Inside the Field POWER RANKINGS: TRAVELERS CHAMPIONSHIP Brooks Koepka, Marc Leishman, Cameron Smith, Tony Finau and Joaquin Niemann will be among the notables reviewed in Tuesday’s Fantasy Insider. The Travelers Championship is in the parade of checkpoints that have served as default anniversaries throughout the 2020-21 season. And it’s not insignificant for it was the 2020 edition that marked the first tournament that wasn’t canceled or rescheduled after the three-month shutdown due to the pandemic. So, if you were searching for an example of what life was like when is began to return to what we considered as normal, this is it. Those in the field of 156 at TPC River Highlands also will reconnect with what they consider to be familiar. There haven’t been any changes to the stock par 70 that tips at just 6,841 yards. The four-inch primary rough is the same and the 5,000-square foot greens blanketed with Poa annua will be prepped to run to a TOUR-popular distance of 12 feet on the Stimpmeter. Last year’s scoring average of 68.626 represented a nine-year low and was aided by the deepest field in tournament history, but it already was headed in that direction. After not breaking the strength-of-field rating threshold (as determined by the Official World Golf Ranking) of 350 through 2017, it climbed to 446 and 436 in 2018 and 2019, respectively, but last year’s value was 623. Of course, with all touring professionals sidelined for an extended period of time, playing opportunities were coveted throughout the summer. However, the consistent, fair test of TPC River Highlands continues to attract top talent. Favorable weather conditions are in store throughout the tournament. Rain early in the week could impact the Hartford Yard Goats’ series opener on Tuesday night when the Double-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies is planning to celebrate the Travelers Championship. By Thursday, clear and dry opening rounds of the tournament will be followed by the next threat of inclement weather on the weekend, but it’s forecast to be spotty as the winds kick up considerably. Daytime highs will be seasonable in the low 80s. ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE PGATOUR.COM’s Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton recaps and previews every tournament from numerous angles. Look for his following contributions as scheduled. MONDAY: Power Rankings TUESDAY*: Sleepers; Fantasy Insider SUNDAY: Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Medical Extensions, Rookie Watch * – 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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2019 3M Open, End of Round 1. Course scoring averages: Overall: -0.74 strokes per round Morning wave: -0.83 Afternoon wave: -0.64 Current cutline: 70 players at -2 or better (T49th position) Top 3 most likely projected cutlines: 2 under par: 25.8% 3 under par: 24.8% 1 under par: 18.3% Top 10 win probabilities: Hideki Matsuyama (T2, -7, 17.7%) Scott Piercy (1, -9, 16.5%) Brooks Koepka (T18, -4, 6.8%) Adam Hadwin (T2, -7, 6.5%) Bryson DeChambeau (T9, -5, 6.2%) Tony Finau (T9, -5, 4.2%) Sungjae Im (T4, -6, 4.1%) Jason Day (T49, -2, 2.1%) Lucas Glover (T18, -4, 1.9%) Brian Harman (T4, -6, 1.8%) NOTE: These reports are based off the live predictive model run by @DataGolf. The model provides live “Make Cut�, “Top 20�, “Top 5�, and “Win� probabilities every 5 minutes from the opening tee shot to the final putt of every PGA TOUR event. Briefly, the model takes account of the current form of each golfer as well as the difficulty of their remaining holes, and probabilities are calculated from 20K simulations. To follow live finish probabilities throughout the remainder of the 3M Open, or to see how each golfer’s probabilities have evolved from the start of the event to the current time, click here for the model’s home page.

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Hideki Matsuyama cruised to his third win of the 2016-17 PGA TOUR season with five-shot victory at the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational. Matsuyama, who closed out the tournament with a final-round 61, was nearly flawless from tee-to-green — he led the field in Strokes Gained category (plus 14.936) for the tournament — with a mixed setup that includes Callaway, TaylorMade, Honma, Cleveland/Srixon and TaylorMade equipment. Matsuyama made one significant change to his setup at Firestone with the addition of a TaylorMade TP Collection Mullen mallet that replaced the Scotty Cameron GSS Newport 2 Timeless that’s been a mainstay in his bag. During the creation process, Matsuyama requested that the heel, toe and back flange be squared off to fit his eye at address. Introduced last October, the TP Collection Mullen was used briefly by Rory McIlroy during the Travelers Championship. The compact head has a short “S” hosel that allows for a slight toe hang. Matsuyama ranked 15th in Strokes Gained: Putting (plus 3.051) with the new mallet. Here’s a look at the rest of the equipment in Matsuyama’s bag. Driver: Callaway Great Big Bertha (Graphite Design DI-8TX shaft), 9 degrees 3-wood: TaylorMade 2017 M2 (Graphite Design DI-9TX), 15 degrees Hybrid: Honma TW727 U19 (Graphite Design DI-115 Hybrid X shaft), 19 degrees Irons: Srixon Z945 (4-PW; True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 shafts) Wedges: Cleveland Golf 588 RTX 2.0 Precision Forged (52-10, 56-12 and 60-10 degrees; True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 shafts) Putter: TaylorMade TP Collection Mullen Ball: Srixon Z-Star XV 5

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