Pick ‘Em Preview: Rocket Mortgage Classic

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As the PGA TOUR settles into its annual hibernation for the holidays, we’re reminded immediately that the sport is global. There may not be a better example of it than this week’s ISPS HANDA World Cup of Golf. Two-man teams representing 28 countries from six continents have assembled at The Metropolitan Golf Club in Melbourne, Australia, for the biennial competition. Scroll beneath the ranking for details on the course, the format and more. WILD CARDS Belgium … Former University of Illinois teammates Thomas Pieters and Thomas Detry should have a blast. Detry is as much of a machine as any non-winner on the European Tour. Pieters’ profile as a bomber overshadows his phenomenal putting. China … Hao Tong Li and Ashun Wu surprised en route to sharing runner-up honors at Kingston Heath two years ago, so they’re back to go one better. Li recently connected five straight top-11 finishes. Mexico … Fresh off victory at the Emirates Australian Open, Abraham Ancer is one of the hottest talents in the world right now, but teammate Roberto Díaz is 742nd in the Official World Golf Ranking. As spring blooms Down Under, this international field gets everything it wants at The Metropolitan Golf Club. A cornerstone of the famed Sandbelt, its history and beauty rivals any other test on the planet. Metropolitan may be most familiar to longtime fans of the sport as the host of the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play in 2001, but it’s also served as the backdrop at times for all three of the events comprising the Triple Crown in Australia as well as the 2009 Women’s Australian Open. Presented at 7,308 yards for this week’s 72-hole, stroke-play contest, Metropolitan is a stock par 72, but three each of the par 3s and par 5s are situated on the outward nine. This won’t matter in four-ball in Rounds 1 and 3, but because all four of the par 3s are even-numbered holes – Nos. 2, 6, 8 and 12 – strategy will come into play in Rounds 2 and 4 when foursomes is utilized. (This is the opposite format from when Denmark’s Thorbjørn Olesen and Søren Kjeldsen rode a 12-under 60 in four-ball in the second round en route to a four-stroke victory at Kingston Heath Golf Club in 2016.) Unlike the majority of tracks outside the United States, Metropolitan’s greens are manicured to run fast. In ideal conditions, Stimpmeter readings exceed 12 feet on the bentgrass putting surfaces. Unfortunately, bad weather is forecast. After daytime temperatures climbed into the 80s through Monday, a cold front will limit reading to no higher than the upper 50s and low 60s throughout the tournament. What’s more, rain is all but guaranteed to fall on Thursday and Friday. And that’s still not all. Winds will howl steadily at approximately 15 mph and gust to 25 mph or more. As it concerns the challenges within the control of the competitors, the longest rough is trimmed to 2 inches, but the primary hazard are the striking bunkers that dominate the landscape. There’s zero margin for error adjacent to most of them as fairways and greens drop helplessly over sharp edges of numerous revamped faces. Of the 56 golfers in all, 33 competed somewhere last weekend, 25 of whom at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai. Seven acclimated at the Emirates Australian Open over in Sydney, while Zimbabwe’s Scott Vincent descended from the Japan Golf Tour’s Dunlop Phoenix. No doubt the champions of the World Cup entirely will feel like they’ve not only prevailed over the competition, but the elements as well. First place of the $7-million prize fund awards $2.24 million with $1.12 million going to each member of the winning team.

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HOUSTON – Travis Vick has been coming to the PGA TOUR tournament in Houston for much of his life. Getting a signed ball from Stewart Cink is among the memories he has from watching the pros play. “He just came off the ninth green and went to the 10th tee box and threw me a golf ball,” Vick said. “That was my first autograph.” This week, Vick is inside the ropes. The Houston native, who grew up five minutes away from Memorial Park, is competing in the Cadence Bank Houston Open on a sponsor exemption. It is his third start on TOUR and debut in his hometown event. He got off to a good start. A 2-under 68 in Thursday’s first round – which also fell on his father’s birthday – left Vick just three back of leaders Alex Noren and Aaron Wise after the morning wave. “I grew up five minutes from here, so I’ve always come to this tournament and watched all the pros play,” said Vick, who estimates he had 50 friends and family watching Thursday. “As a child it was a dream of mine to maybe be able one day to play in the Houston Open because that was the big tournament from where I’m from. So just to be here is an honor and I’m hoping to make the most of it.” His dreams now extend beyond playing his hometown TOUR stop. Vick is in the final months of a successful amateur career and in position to capitalize on the rewards offered by PGA TOUR University presented by Velocity Global. He is No. 7 in the Velocity Global Ranking and can earn valuable points this week. The top five in the standings after the NCAA Championship will earn immediate status on the Korn Ferry Tour. Vick was the low amateur at this year’s U.S. Open (T43) and secured the clinching point for the University of Texas in its NCAA Championship victory. Vick said he’s been struggling with his ballstriking over the last few months, however, and Thursday’s round was a welcome sign of progress after shooting 80-75 at last week’s World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba. Vick lost plenty of golf balls in the mangroves and penalty areas that line El Camaleon’s fairways. That venue is one of the shorter and tighter ones on TOUR. “It’s kind of hard to play golf when you run out of golf balls,” Vick said. The renovated Memorial Park, which has a much different appearance than the one Vick played years ago, is what can be called a “big ballpark” where players can separate themselves with their ballstriking. “It’s a monster out there,” Vick said. “There’s long par 4s, there’s super undulating greens. They can make this place as hard as they’d like.” Vick gained more than a stroke with his approach play Thursday while averaging 319.0 yards off the tee. He fits the mold of the modern power player, having excelled in football, baseball and golf at Houston’s Second Baptist School. His prep baseball coaches were former Astros stars Lance Berkman and Andy Pettitte, the latter of whom has become a mentor who helps Vick with the game’s mental side. Vick considered playing baseball in college, as well, before deciding to focus on golf. “Andy has been very helpful as a guy who’s been there and done that,” Vick told GolfChannel.com at this year’s U.S. Open. “He helps with mentality – he knows a lot about golf, but it’s more from a big-league level, like, ‘This is what I’ve done. This is what I’ve tried. This is what I’ve experienced.’ Based on what he’s done in the game of baseball, him just having the thought of helping me is such an honor.” Vick is a promising prospect in his chosen sport, ranking 10th in the World Amateur Ranking, as well. His swing coach, Adam Porzak, is on the bag this week. The pair went to work during the practice rounds to fix some bad tendencies that have crept into Vick’s swing in competition. After starting Thursday’s round with a bogey at No. 1, Vick birdied half of the remaining holes on the front nine to make the turn in 3-under 32. He bogeyed the first two holes of the back nine, but birdied Nos. 12 and 15 to get back to 3 under. “On 10 and 11 I hit really bad shots and I didn’t really know what it was,” Vick said. “Then I made a little quick adjustment and birdied 12. From there on I hit it pretty well. So I was able to kind of make adjustments throughout the round. But I do feel like we’re moving in the right direction in regards to the swing and seeing a positive result like today definitely helps the confidence.” He made another bogey at the par-5 16th, where he hit his second shot into the water guarding the green, before parring the final two holes. “Bogeying No. 16 kind of hurt, killed the momentum,” Vick said. “But other than that, there’s a lot of great iron shots. It’s just a good round of golf.”

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