Justin Lower leads by one at Fortinet Championship

THE OVERVIEW By Ben Everill, PGATOUR.COM It is hard to resist a good name pun here as Kevin Chappell was so often the bridesmaid but finally became the bride — so to speak — last season. Although from a financial standpoint, Chappell’s 2015-16 season exceeded last year’s earnings by more than $1.3 million, there is no doubt that the 2016-17 campaign offered a career high for the former UCLA star. A breakthrough win at the Valero Texas Open came after six career runner-up results and three other third—place finishes. Four of the runner-up efforts came the season prior. In addition, he surged his way into the U.S. Team for the Presidents Cup, where he was a valued addition in the rout of the Internationals at Liberty National. It was his first national appearance for a U.S. team. The questions now: Can he continue to rise? Can Chappell meld together the consistency of high finishes from two years ago with a winning season like last year? The skill is clearly there, particularly in the ball-striking department. If he can create an uptick in his putting to go with it, he could be one we are watching much more often.  TOP 30 PLAYERS TO WATCH IN 2018: We’ll countdown our list with one new player each day in December. Click here for the published players. MORE: Top 30 explanation and schedule There’s a simmering surge of competitiveness always right below the surface for Chappell – often you see some frustration bubbling over as he expects so much from himself. Now that the win column has been ticked, the nerves around contention are being used in better ways and this grinder could be one name seen on countless Sunday leaderboards. Click here to follow Ben on Twitter FEDEXCUP 2017-18 position: T139 Playoff appearances: 7 TOUR Championship appearances: 2 Best result: 8th (2016) BY THE NUMBERS INSIGHTS FROM OUR INSIDERS PGATOUR.COM’s Insiders offer their expert views on what to expect from Kevin Chappell in 2018. TOUR INSIDER by Ben Everill What’s next for Chappell? Brandon Christianson, coach of the Stanislaus State golf team and a Chappell insider, isn’t worried. As teammates at UCLA, Chappell would drag Christianson out to practice under the lights at The Lakes at El Segundo driving range. “That’s just the type of guy he is,â€� Christianson says. “He’s always progressing. As we grew up, at different points throughout junior golf, college golf, people would plateau and fall off. Kevin saw that happening and made sure it didn’t happen to him. That’s what’s always what has set Kevin apart is his accountability to himself.â€�  Click here to follow Ben on Twitter FANTASY INSIDER by Rob Bolton It wasn’t long ago when he was reserved as a horse on challenging tracks. Ball-strikers emerge when par is of value, so it surprised no one that he prevailed for the first time at the perennially tricky TPC San Antonio. But that was merely the expected payoff after years of close calls. Today, he’s among the keystones of well-balanced rosters because he’s a lock for all of the biggest events for a while, he remains as active as ever, having touched 26 starts in six of seven campaigns, and he’s maximizing his cuts made with 13 of his 23 career top 10s as a PGA TOUR member in the last two seasons alone. Oh, and that skill set of saving strokes against the field tee to green will take years to rust because of his sneaky length off the tee. Click here to follow Rob on Twitter EQUIPMENT INSIDER by Jonathan Wall Chappell remains an equipment free agent following Nike’s departure from the hard-goods industry in 2016. Continues to play Nike Vapor Pro Combo and MMProto irons. Added a Cobra King wedge during the second half of the season. Put Aldila’s X-Torsion Copper and X-Torsion Green shafts in his driver, 3-wood and 5-wood at Akron. Picked up more than 10 yards of carry with the new driver shaft.  Click here to follow Jonathan on Twitter STYLE INSIDER by Greg Monteforte Chappell’s modern and sporty looks are great examples of where golf fashion is today. He is a great brand ambassador for Nike as he doesn’t shy away from amping up his kits with bright colors and innovative designs. Expect him to stay on the cutting edge in 2018 with the latest styles and fabric technologies from the Swoosh.  Click here to follow Greg on Twitter

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Thomas wins FedEx Cup, Schauffele takes Tour Championship

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How do you produce live golf in the age of COVID-19? It’s complicated. Sean McManus, Chairman of CBS Sports, said the network will use roughly half its normal on-site personnel, including Jim Nantz with a robotic camera instead of Nick Faldo, who will be in Orlando with Frank Nobillo. Staff in New York and Los Angeles will also be contributing. “It’s one of the great challenges that I’ve ever seen in my 35 years,� Nantz said. “This is the most complicated production plan I’ve ever been involved in,� McManus added. Golf was already the hardest sport to produce. Now it’s exponentially harder, but the network is embarking on an 11-week run of coverage in which they’re figuring it out on the fly. This week’s show has been more than two months in the making, McManus said. Among the never-before-attempted features will be a mid-round confession cam, in a tent, featuring a robotic camera and a single question on a cue card for players to (hopefully) answer as they play through. Necessity is the mother of invention, McManus said, and with no fans and no roars, it was time to explore new audio sources. The broadcast will acknowledge current events – the pandemic, the ongoing protests for racial justice – but provide much-needed counterprogramming. “I think our nation maybe needs a bit of a distraction,� McManus said. Nantz called this week “an opportunity for the TOUR to create a wider fan base than it’s ever had before.� FedExCup No. 2 Justin Thomas echoed that sentiment. Ryan Palmer, a member at Colonial Country Club, said, “We need live golf. America needs it. We need live sports. I think this week is going to be a very special, huge week for the sporting world.� We need it because we have had almost nothing but sports rebroadcasts and “The Great British Baking Show� and far too much terrible news to watch for nearly three months. The Schwab will pull in golf fans, yes, but also sports fans and anyone just looking for something different. “I think we’ve all exhausted every one of our favorite shows,� said Brandel Chamblee, the Golf Channel analyst, who will also ramp back up this week. “By now, we’ve done everything there is to do around the house. I think everybody’s honey-do lists are checked off and completed. “Sporting events bring us together in a way nothing else does,� he added. “It gives us something somewhat trivial to talk about, but entertaining nonetheless, and allows all of us to have loyalty. It’s not life or death. It’s raw entertainment, but in it, you know, there’s inspiration. So it just galvanizes us. … I expect the ratings to be colossally high.� Indeed, it’s almost hard to overstate the importance of this Return to Golf. We’ve missed the percussive thwap and eye-popping parabola of a Rory McIlroy drive. We’ve missed the terrible tension of a jam-packed leaderboard on a late Sunday afternoon. Heck, we’ve even missed the “mashed potatoes� guy. (OK, maybe not so much him.) Scientifically, what we’ve been missing is mirror neurons, which are what happen when we watch golf, listen to a concert, or even read a novel. To the extent that we’re familiar with an activity, some percentage of our premotor cortex kicks in even as we observe it. Simply put, as Rory sizes up a putt to win on a steamy day in Texas, our palms, too, are sweating. Sports bring us together? Oh, yeah, they do – on an empathic level. “There’s the empathy of almost being in the mind of the athlete,� said UCLA neuroscientist Marco Iacoboni, an expert on mirror neurons, “and then there’s sharing that empathy with other people watching that athlete – we’ve been missing that big-time. It will be nice to get that back.� We’ve also been missing the element of surprise; fans like watching talent, yes, but also want to be surprised by luck – a crazy bounce, for example, to give the underdogs and/or less skilled a chance. Iacoboni calls it the you-never-know-what-is-going-to-happen factor. Meanwhile, real life goes on, and continues to surprise us all. “I’m 61 years old,� Nantz said, when asked about current events, “and I consider this to be perhaps the most important time in history in my lifetime. We just have to get this opportunity right. We can’t let this moment pass without real and meaningful progress when it comes to equality, diversity, justice, love and empathy, and I hope to express that at the top. “… I think the golf TOUR being back in action,� he added, “it comes at a very important time in our nation’s history. It’s a chance to get people to actually watch something together, root together, unify together, and I hope that that can be achieved.�

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