After a year off and still with strict player restrictions, The Open is set for its complicated return

RENO, Nev. — Booking a place in the FedExCup Playoffs is no easy task, especially for those sitting precariously close to the top 125 bubble with only a few weeks left in the TOUR’s regular season. With 27 of the top 125 in the FedExCup standings playing the Barracuda Championship, the event offers an opportunity to solidify their position. For those on the outside looking in — 56 players ranked from 126 to 200 are in the field at Montreux Golf & Country Club — it’s a chance to spoil the party and extend the 2017-18 season beyond the Wyndham Championship. Seamus Power and Aaron Baddeley are on opposite sides of the bubble at the moment, but both managed to make positive strides to stay on the right side of the top 125 after the first round. “It’s professional golf,” said Power, who began the week at No. 123 in the current standings. “It’s not as if I wouldn’t like to play well every other week of the year. [Making the Playoffs] is somewhere in the back of your mind, but as long as it’s not affecting the way you play, it’s not that big of a deal.” Power opened with 8 points (3-under 69) in the Modified Stableford event to move up two spots to No. 121 in the projected standings. As if playing with the season on the line wasn’t difficult enough, Power had to deal with a group of hornets that stung him multiple times on the 1st hole — his 10th of the day — as he was searching for Corey Conners’ golf ball. Power managed to birdie two of his next three holes after the incident before suffering two untimely bogeys as the wind began to freshen. “I got swarmed by five or six of them and they stung me quite a bit,” Power said. “A couple got under my shirt and stung me. I’ve been stung before, but never anything like that.” While Baddeley didn’t have to deal with insects at Montreux, he had to contend with the possibility of missing out on The Northern Trust following a stretch of eight missed cuts in his previous 11 starts. Sitting at No. 135 entering the tournament, Baddeley opened with 14 points (6-under 66) to move up 30 places to No. 105. He sits just three points behind current leader Ollie Schniederjans, who amassed 17 points, in second place. Even with the possibility of missing out on the Playoffs for the second straight season looming — Baddeley had advanced to at least The Northern Trust in his previous 10 seasons before last year — the Aussie said he isn’t sweating the possibility of the season coming to a close at the Wyndham Championship. “I’m not stressed, to be honest,” Baddeley said. “Whether you go to Web.com Tour Finals or whether you finish in the 126 to 150 category, you’re going to get starts and my game’s in a good spot.” Baddeley attributed his strong play to the Modified Stableford format that puts a premium on birdies and eagles, and lessens the penalty for a big number that could crater a round most weeks. “I think there’s times where you might go for a shot that you might not or go for a couple of extra pins,” Baddeley said. “… It’s the way the format is. The more birdies the better.” NOTABLES With Montreux playing at anywhere from 5,000 to 6,000 feet, Michael Thompson (10 points) noted the elevation change and wind made for some interesting club selections on Thursday. “It sometimes feels like we’re taking forever to figure out our number. You just have to be patient and crunch the numbers. We started with 5 percent for elevation at the beginning of the round and moved it to 10 percent. Then you factor in the wind. We try and keep it simple, but there’s definitely some additional math involved.” Despite missing the cut in his previous two appearances at the Barracuda Championship, Ollie Schniederjans was in complete control of his game on Thursday, closing with an eagle and three birdies over the final eight holes to finish with 17 points. He attributed his strong start to getting comfortable with his approach shot distances and throttling back a bit. “I was just coming out extremely aggressive. But my game is coming around. I feel in control of my swing for the first time in a while.” Chris Stroud posted 7 points in the opening round with the same putter he used to win last year’s Barracuda Championship. Prior to this week, Stroud had relied on a conventional-length TaylorMade Spider before returning to an Odyssey White Ice D.A.R.T. with Matt Kuchar’s preferred Arm-Lock grip. “I literally just got it rebuilt back the way it was when I won here last year. I’m going to see if I can make a big run at the FedExCup.” Aaron Baddeley and Tom Lovelady were the only two players in the field who made a big enough move on Thursday to crack the projected top 125. Baddeley moved up 30 spots to 105 while Lovelady improved five spots to 124. QUOTABLES Instead of taking a week off, I kind of wanted to get on a roll, play a little bit before the [PGA Championship] and roll into next week with some rounds. And that was a really good one here.We can show him out here that the TOUR is thinking of him and is with him. That’s what it’s all about. Golf seems very small right now in comparison.

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How it works: Each week, our experts from PGATOUR.COM will make their selections in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO. Each lineup consists of four starters and two bench players that can be rotated after each round. Adding to the challenge is that every golfer can be used only three time per each of four Segments. The first fantasy golf game to utilize live ShotLink data, PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO allows you to see scores update live during competition. To learn more or sign up click here. MORE FANTASY: Power Rankings | Sleeper Picks | The Confidence Factor CDW, an official partner of the PGA TOUR, offers its weekly fantasy selection. Here’s this week’s “Data-Driven Decision.” The computer selected strokes gained: off-the-tee, bogey avoidance and strokes gained: tee-to-green as the three most important statistics this week. After calculating this season’s ranks in those categories of every player in the field, the computer made the following prediction for this week’s winner. THINK YOU’RE BETTER THAN OUR EXPERTS? The PGA TOUR Experts league is once again open to the public. You can play our free fantasy game and see how you measure up against our experts below. Joining the league is simple. Just click here to sign up or log in. Once you create your team, click the “Leagues” tab and search for “PGA TOUR Experts.” After that? Pick your players and start talking smack.

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DETROIT – Troy Merritt (67, 14 under par) hasn’t been in the hunt in a while, and as an Iowa native is trying to keep the trophy in the Midwest. Joaquin Niemann (68, 14 under) finished second in the first two tournaments of 2021 – once in a playoff – and would be winning one for Santiago, Chile. Thanks to Merritt’s first-ever hole-in-one on the PGA TOUR, a 5-iron that one-hopped into the hole at the 219-yard 11th, and Niemann going bogey-free through 54 holes, those two are tied for the lead with one round remaining at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. But it could be a wild Sunday at birdie-friendly Detroit Golf Club with 14 players within four of the lead. “Yeah, the big thing is when you get out in front, don’t go back to the guys behind you,” said Merritt, 35, who won 21 tournaments at Boise State and will be aiming for his third win on TOUR. “Make them come and get you. “I know that we’re tied now,” he added, “so the mindset will be to make a few birdies but don’t give any away, make them work to come and get us and hopefully it’s good enough in the end.” Niemann is a perfect 13 for 13 in scrambling, and has 14 par saves from four feet or longer this week. The last player to go bogey-free and win on TOUR was J.T. Poston at the 2019 Wyndham Championship, and he was the first to accomplish it since Lee Trevino in 1974. Niemann was in danger of giving a shot back when he got out of position at the par-5 14th hole but made what he called “a huge save” from a greenside bunker to keep his streak going. The FedExCup No. 25 and world No. 30, Niemann, who has made 21 cuts in 22 starts this year,has already won once on TOUR at the tender age of 22. But that win total could easily be two or three by now had things broken differently for him at the Sentry Tournament of Champions (playoff loss) and Sony Open in Hawaii (T2) in January. He contends he got over it quickly. “You’ve just got to be patient,” he said. “I think everybody’s going to have their own moment and I had my moment pretty early. And then I was trying to find my moment, I went into a playoff in Hawaii, finished second the week after also. “But I took it pretty easy,” he continued. “I just wanted to keep going. I knew that when everything went well, I would win again, so I just didn’t want to put myself in that stress.” Sunday is expected to bring warmer temperatures, where conditions the last two days have been fall-like. The course is still soft from copious rain and has historically yielded low scores. Bryson DeChambeau shoot a final-round 65 to win last year. Nate Lashley shot 25 under to win in 2019. If you assume that anyone as far back as five shots still has a chance, that brings in a massive group at 9 under, including Rocket Mortgage ambassador Rickie Fowler. “Obviously the leaders, they’re all pretty close, right next to each other,” Niemann said, “so I know that I need to go low tomorrow to give myself a chance to win.” Added Hank Lebioda (66, one back), a lefty whose T5 at the Travelers Championship last week was his only top-10 finish in 19 previous starts this season, “The way this course is playing, it’s (yielding) quite a few birdies. It will probably be the same tomorrow, so I’ll get my cracks.” Merritt, 35, won the 2015 Quicken Loans National and 2018 Barbasol Championship but came into this week at 101st in the FedExCup. He said putting was the problem, but leads the field in Strokes Gained: Putting (+6.659) and is second in driving accuracy (36/42) through three rounds. “Last couple Sundays for sure – U.S. Open and Memorial and last week Travelers – haven’t been anything special,” he said, “so we’re due to get back on track so hopefully that’s this week.”

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