Fowler makes surprising putter switch

There are 23 rookies on the PGA TOUR in 2017-18. This feature provides a subjective ranking updated weekly. The Rookie of the Year is voted by PGA TOUR members who make at least 15 starts. SNAPSHOT: There was only one week off in between PGA TOUR seasons, but it wasn’t without significant news. To no one’s surprise, Xander Schauffele was crowned the Rookie of the Year for 2016-17. He was the class’ only two-time winner. He captured his second title occurring at the season-ending TOUR Championship to finish third in the FedExCup standings behind Justin Thomas and 2013 Rookie of the Year Jordan Spieth, respectively. The other development was first covered in last week’s turnover of this page. Six rookies secured PGA TOUR cards at the Web.com Tour Finals, the other 17 via the regular season on the 2017 Web.com Tour. Only Austin Cook elected not to debut at the Safeway Open where only eight of 22 made the cut. Tyler Duncan made the biggest splash with a two-way tie for fifth place. After sharing the 18-hole lead (with Tom Hoge and eventual champion Brendan Steele), Duncan led outright after both 36 and 54 holes. As impressive as Duncan’s performance was, it was just the third-best finish by a rookie in the Safeway Open since the wraparound season was introduced in 2013. Brooks Koepka tied for third at CordeValle in 2013 and Emiliano Grillo prevailed in a playoff at Silverado in 2015. LOW ROOKIE: Tyler Duncan, T5. First time. CAREER-BEST FINISHES (AND TIES): Tyler Duncan (T5); Brandon Harkins (T9); Corey Conners (T30); Stephan Jaeger (T30); Tom Lovelady (T43); Ben Silverman (T43); Talor Gooch (T54) * – In the field at the CIMB Classic as of Oct. 8. Through the Safeway Open NOTE: A player’s rookie season (“Rookie Year”) is defined as the season in which he becomes a PGA TOUR member (including Special Temporary Members) and plays in 10 or more events as a member or finishes in the Top 125 on the Official FedExCup Points List, the Top 125 on the Official PGA TOUR Money List or qualifies as a Top 125 – Nonmember, whichever occurs first. Further, for purposes of this definition, a new member (including Special Temporary Members) shall not be eligible for the PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year if he has previously played in more than seven (7) Official PGA TOUR Money events as a professional in any prior season.

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When the Zurich Classic of New Orleans went to a two-man team competition in 2017, it generated as close to a free play in our world as it gets. Similar to how the tournament doesn’t award Official World Golf Ranking points and, therefore, doesn’t charge a golfer one start on his divisor, if otherwise applicable, it’s possible for you to collect the FedExCup points and/or earnings of a golfer you’ve already burned or want to save … by selecting his partner. FedExCup points and earnings for each member of every team are identical to his teammate. So, if you’re keen on Brooks Koepka at TPC Louisiana, save him for another stop, perhaps a major – he’ll be defending two of them in the next seven weeks – or even if you can’t, simply choose his teammate and brother, Chase, in PGA TOUR Fantasy One & Done. If you do, and assuming both are available to you entering the tournament, only Chase won’t be usable again. With all respect to Chase, for all One & Doners who could play either and are interested, 100 percent of you should select Chase. It’s not hard, gang. Of course, some duos don’t have that luxury, so to speak. At some point this season, you’re likely going to want to invest in both Jason Day and Adam Scott, Sergio Garcia and Tommy Fleetwood, and Patrick Reed and Patrick Cantlay, but with one comes the other this week as each is a teammate of the other. In theory, teams with two top-shelf talents should contend by default, but who you choose is much more about long-term ownership strategy than it is about the possibility to contend or even win. For example, and while we could engage in this exercise every week, the teams of Garcia and Rafa Cabrera Bello, Justin Thomas and Bud Cauley, Jordan Spieth and Ryan Palmer, Gary Woodland and Daniel Berger, Jon Rahm and Wesley Bryan, Kevin Na and Byeong Hun An, Brandt Snedeker and J.B. Holmes, and then-defending champions Cameron Smith and Jonas Blixt all missed the cut last year. Some are easier to overcome than others, but when none is wholly responsible for his result as he is in every other tournament of the season, defending against who you’d miss more is important. The angle of who you choose relates much better to two-man gamers because of how deep you’ll go over the course of the season. David Hearn belongs at the top of the list of the tandems given his perfect record at TPC Louisiana no matter the format. He and teammate Seamus Power (T6 at the RBC Heritage) were no-brainer Sleepers. Of the guys in my Power Rankings, Scott Brown (Kevin Kisner’s partner), Graeme McDowell (Henrik Stenson’s partner), Kyle Stanley (Tony Finau’s partner) and Jonas Blixt (Cameron Smith’s partner) are intriguing. The only piece of advice I’ll extend to two-man gamers is to resist circling both members of the same team. Expand your margin of error and free yourself from the limitation of an identical result even if it means swallowing one missed cut. It’s better than not having the choice of only one. 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. Keegan Bradley … Memorial (5); Travelers (4) Patrick Cantlay … Memorial (3) Jason Day … Wells Fargo (6 defending); PGA Championship (3); U.S. Open (10); Open Championship (9) Jason Dufner … New Orleans (1); Charles Schwab (6); Memorial (5); U.S. Open (2); Wyndham (8); TOUR Championship (10) Tony Finau … Memorial (2) Sergio Garcia … Open Championship (5); TOUR Championship (2) Branden Grace … Byron Nelson (5); U.S. Open (4) Bill Haas … Charles Schwab (2); Wyndham (6) Adam Hadwin … John Deere (5) Brian Harman … Charles Schwab (1); Travelers (5); John Deere (4) Charley Hoffman … Charles Schwab (6); Travelers (1) J.B. Holmes … Wells Fargo (5) Billy Horschel … New Orleans (3; defending); Wyndham (6); TOUR Championship (1) Chris Kirk … Charles Schwab (2) Kevin Kisner … New Orleans (5); Charles Schwab (2); Memorial (6) Brooks Koepka … PGA Championship (2; defending); Charles Schwab (6); U.S. Open (1; two-time defending); Open Championship (8) Martin Laird … Barracuda (2) Louis Oosthuizen … U.S. Open (5); PGA Championship (4) Ryan Palmer … Charles Schwab (4) Scott Piercy … New Orleans (1; co-defending); Canadian (7; last winner at Hamilton in 2012) Jon Rahm … Charles Schwab (1); TOUR Championship (7) Patrick Reed … PGA Championship (4); U.S. Open (3); Travelers (7) Adam Scott … Byron Nelson (11); PGA Championship (8); U.S. Open (9); Open Championship (7); TOUR Championship (3) Cameron Smith … Wyndham (3) Brendan Steele … Wells Fargo (9); Travelers (4); Barracuda (3) Henrik Stenson … PGA Championship (4); Open Championship (6); Wyndham (8); TOUR Championship (7) Kevin Streelman … Memorial (4); Travelers (7) Bubba Watson … Memorial (7); Travelers (2; defending); TOUR Championship (8)

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