PGA Championship field list includes Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson

KAPALUA, Hawaii — Winless last year for the first time in his young career, Collin Morikawa is playing as though he wants to put that behind him quickly. Morikawa was dialed in with his irons early and took advantage of some of the scoring holes late in his second round Friday for a 7-under 66 that gave him a two-shot lead in the Sentry Tournament of Champions. He was at 16-under 130 and without a bogey over two rounds on the Plantation Course at Kapalua. Masters champion Scottie Scheffler had a good laugh on the first tee with U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick and then ran off nine birdies in his round of 66, leaving him two shots behind along with Kapalua newcomer J.J. Spaun (68). Scheffler can return to No. 1 in the world this week with a two-way tie for third at better, with Rory McIlroy choosing to sit out this week. Jordan Spieth had two eagles — one a 7-iron that came inches away from an albatross on the par-5 fifth hole — and had a 66. He was three shots behind. Morikawa ordinarily wouldn’t be at Kapalua for the winners-only start to the year. But in this new year of trying to bring together the top players more often, the PGA TOUR expanded the field from exclusively winners in 2022 to include those who reached the FedExCup finale at East Lake. Morikawa shared the 18-hole lead by running off six straight birdies to start the back nine. On a gorgeous Friday afternoon on Maui with a little more wind, he did most of his damage early. It started with a 20-foot birdie putt on the opening hole, followed by short irons to 3 feet and 8 feet. From there, everyone else did well to keep pace. Scheffler was introduced on the first tee with a mention of all four of his wins last year, from the Waste Management Phoenix Open to the Masters. Next up was Fitzpatrick, who beat Scheffler by one shot at Brookline. He was introduced as the U.S. Open champion. “You don’t have that one,” Fitzpatrick said as they laughed. Scoring remained low enough that only two players were over par — Billy Horschel (71) and Chad Ramey (76) were 2 over. Morikawa had a chance to tie the 36-hole scoring record that Cameron Smith set last year at 17-under 129. He was just off the front of the 18th green when he muffed his chip and saw it run out to only 30 feet, and his long birdie putt banged off the lip. No matter. He was still in the lead, his first time with at least a share of the 36-hole lead since the U.S. Open last summer. Missing from Kapalua is Xander Schauffele, the No. 6 player in the world who withdraw after eight holes because of an ailing back. Schauffele said he was headed home to Las Vegas to figure out what’s going on.

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How it works: Each week, our experts from PGATOUR.COM will make their selections in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf. 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 times per each of four Segments. The first fantasy golf game to utilize live ShotLink data, PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf allows you to see scores update live during competition. Aside from the experts below, Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton breaks down the field at this year’s RBC Heritage in his edition of the Power Rankings. For more fantasy, check out Rookie Ranking, Qualifiers and Reshuffle. 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. Want to represent the fans against our experts? SEASON SEGMENT

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The PGA TOUR turns to the Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club, a par 72 measuring 7,370 yards with poa annua-bentgrass greens in Detroit, Michigan this week. Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $1M Pitch + Putt [$250K to 1st] STRATEGY With just a few weeks until the FedExCup (FEC) playoffs begin, golfers like defending FedExCup champion Patrick Cantlay ($10,700), plus Will Zalatoris ($10,400), Tony Finau ($10,600), Cameron Young ($10,100) and Adam Scott ($9,300) are making their way to Detroit Golf Club to either bolster their points, or pick up some much needed ones. The scorecard will have the full complement of par 5s and par 3s along with an even balance of par 4s ranging from 372 yards (No. 8) to 461 yards (No. 6). Past winners in the field include Cameron Davis ($9,700) and Nate Lashley ($6,800). Detroit Golf Club features two courses (North and South), and the tournament will feature 17 holes from the North and one from the South (third hole). The golfers should play this as a typical Donald Ross design with precise approach shots into contoured greens while navigating tree-lined fairways. In the past the course has yielded higher-than-average returns in driving distance; greens in regulation and fairways hit, meaning players should need to score at an impressive rate. Last season the course was gettable, ranking as the fourth easiest in scoring relative to par with the sixth-most eagles and third-most birdies on TOUR. The course will have 87 bunkers with just one water hazard that will only come into play on one hole, much different than last week. Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green, putting and birdies or better gained should be the key statistics we should focus on when building our lineups. The guys should be able to score on the par 5s, but we should also focus on those who play short par 4s particularly well with four under 400 yards on the scorecard. Ross courses highlight those who hit it well into the back-to-front pitched greens, but those who struggle must be solid around the greens that feature runoff areas. Over the last few years, the winning daily fantasy golf lineups have all used the entire $50,000 salary. Also, only two of the 18 (six golfers per lineup, over three years) total golfers were above $10,000, and 22% (4) were at $6,900 and below. Don’t be too cautious about rostering high-sentiment golfers this week. More than half of the golfers in the winning lineups were in the double digits for ownership. GOLFERS TO CONSIDER Cameron Young ($10,100) Bryson DeChambeau was rostered in 27.7% of lineups the year he won (2020) and was in the winning Fantasy Golf Millionaire lineup. Young is fourth in the field in driving distance and first in birdie or better gained over the past two dozen rounds. He also possesses one of the best putters on TOUR when he’s hot. Runner-up finishes at The Open Championship, the Wells Fargo Championship and the Genesis Invitational this season prove Young is on the precipice of victory. His ownership may be the highest in the field with how well he sets up at Detroit Golf Club, but he’s too good to pass up. Maverick McNealy ($8,800) There are good and bad outliers, and McNealy’s final two holes on Sunday last week fall into the bad bucket. A bogey-quadruple bogey finish erased four birdies through seven holes on his inward-nine. McNealy totaled 15 birdies and two eagles last week, but he couldn’t stay away from hitting it into hazards. He’s played a lot of golf over the previous two months, so fatigue may be a factor. Still, he sets up nicely and tends to play solid golf in this part of the TOUR schedule. We should also be heading back to Davis Riley ($8,600) this week. Nothing materialized last week, even though he was coming in with great form. Like Young, Davis has been trending all season, and it’s only a matter of time before he wins. Mark Hubbard ($8,000) A WD last week may keep people from rostering Hubbard as much as they should this week. Ranking 21st in birdies or better gained, fifth in approach and fifth in putting over the last 12 rounds is what you want in a golfer who doesn’t hit it a mile off the tee. He’s made six straight cuts and has finishes of third at the Barbasol Championship, 13th at the John Deere Classic, 15th at the Honda Classic and 16th at the Fortinet Championship. He’ll be my favorite daily fantasy golf sleeper this week. Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $1M Pitch + Putt [$250K to 1st] Put your knowledge to the test. Sign up for DraftKings and experience the game inside the game. All views expressed are my own. I am an employee of DraftKings and am ineligible to play in public DFS or DKSB contests. 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