2017 Open Championship: Can anyone catch Jordan Spieth?

CHICAGO, Ill. – Rory McIlroy hired his best man for his bag. Jason Day has replaced his. Day has become the latest high profile player to change up his long-term caddie with news he will rest mentor and coach Colin Swatton from club carrying duties in favor of another close friend, Luke Reardon. While Swatton will remain Day’s coach, Reardon has been given the bag at Conway Farms this week for the BMW Championship where the 2015 champion will attempt to find his first win since the 2016 PLAYERS Championship. It is believed Day will trial the change for the rest of 2017. His season goes on the line this week as he sits 28th in the FedExCup and must perform to move on to the 30-man TOUR Championship. Day will then play The Presidents Cup before likely stops in Korea and China in the new 2017-18 season on his way to an Australian Open showdown with Jordan Spieth in November. It was just two years ago that Swatton and Day ascended to World No. 1 status for the first time with Day’s wire-to-wire win in Chicago. It was the culmination of a long journey which began at a golf academy in Australia when Day was just 12 years old and arrived to be taught by Swatton. Both had lost their fathers to cancer shortly before they met. Together they have claimed 10 PGA TOUR wins, including the 2015 PGA Championship and 2016 PLAYERS. From their early beginnings Swatton became a father figure to Day, eventually moving to the USA with him to pursue the dreams of professional golf as his coach and caddie. The pair have been virtually inseparable with Swatton the best man at Day’s wedding to wife Ellie among other major moments in his life. “I love them together,� Ellie said a year ago of the pair. “Anytime there has even been a minor thought they wouldn’t work together, I would have a heart attack and it stresses me out because I know how good they are for each other. “Jason’s path would have been totally different if he didn’t meet Col. Who knows if he hadn’t met him where he would be. Col is a massive reason he has made it this far, and just as importantly, kept going.� Reardon has a close connection to both men. He was also coached by Swatton at the academy in Queensland and was a roommate of Day’s. It was an early rising Reardon who opened Day’s eyes to the virtues of hard work. Once Day saw his friend getting up early to practice he vowed to get up earlier and work harder, an ethic that took him to the top of the world. Day is the third big name player to change caddies recently after Phil Mickelson split with Jim Mackay and Rory McIlroy moved on from J.P. Fitzgerald.

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Troy Merritt aced the 219-yard 11th hole at Detroit Golf Club and shot a 5-under 67 on Saturday for a share of the lead with Joaquin Niemann in the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Michigan.

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A strange thing has developed for the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide. Tiger Woods has risen as a default play. But first, I was surprised at the minimal outcry that Rory McIlroy sat No. 1 in my Power Rankings on Monday. I’m never provocative on purpose, but I can understand how it can appear that way from the other side. In a field loaded with potential No. 1s, there’s reason why he doesn’t deserve the top spot. So be it. The more relevant narrative in the context of the Power Rankings is who wasn’t plucked from this loaded field of 120 at Muirfield Village, but that’s a different debate. From McIlroy all the way down to Rickie Fowler at No. 7, there are no wrong answers for One & Doners. The problem is, none stands apart from the others for this week’s fit. So, what we have is a genuine seven-course meal from which to choose our favorite based on the traditional variables like overall league position, available golfers and length of your season. If Justin Rose (No. 4) wasn’t fresh off a convincing victory, he’d make a lot of sense. In a vacuum, he’s perfect for those in pursuit, and I just might have taken that bite if there wasn’t a boatload of options. Behemoths like Fowler, Justin Thomas (No. 2), Jason Day (No. 5) and Dustin Johnson (No. 6) are coveted almost everywhere, of course, and I wouldn’t talk you out of any, but again, there’s no reason to pitch you hard on any, either. So, pivot to your long-range planning. For example, I’m reserving Fowler for the U.S. Open. I’ve been saving him for a major and he’s gushed about Shinnecock Hills. That leaves Marc Leishman (No. 3) among the subset. Unless you’re targeting him for The Open Championship, he’s the ideal man for the job at Muirfield Village. The wind might even blow a bit early in the tournament. C’mon Aussie! At No. 8 in the Power Rankings is Woods. He’s the bridge to the bottom seven on the page, including Tony Finau (No. 9), Emiliano Grillo (No. 11), Jordan Spieth (No. 12), Matt Kuchar (No. 13) and defending champion Jason Dufner (No. 15). While I’ll give you that Finau and Grillo present a lot like Leishman, there are concerns about the other guys. That brings us back to Woods. I went on the record on multiple media platforms before the Hero World Challenge, later in December and early in 2018 that we need to let Woods come to us, impossible as that might sound. Successful gamers understand that value of patience and timing. We invest with our heads, not our hearts. We listen to the negative rhetoric (for honesty) and dismiss the positive (as obvious self-belief). After Woods decided that he could commit to a regular schedule of competition, and then added the Valspar Championship because he missed the cut at the Genesis Open, we were encouraged. When he finished T2-T5 at Copperhead and Bay Hill in consecutive weeks, we were convinced that he belonged back on the board. But it wasn’t until after he polished off a T11 at THE PLAYERS with refreshing candor about the improved state of his game – both physically and mentally – and an assurance that he was all the way back with his competitive feel when were we sold. Since THE PLAYERS, I’ve added the Memorial to his short list of Future Possibilities. It slots behind the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational, but he’s yet to qualify for a final spin at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio. As much as we believe that he’ll be there, he’s the guy who fills the blank at the Memorial. And who knows, he just might give your heart what it wants, too. Two-man gamers can roll out of bed and find the target in the dark this week. Kevin Streelman, Luke List, Kyle Stanley and Peter Uihlein are raising their hands. 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 2017-18. 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. Kevin Chappell … St. Jude (5); WGC-Bridgestone (2); Dell Technologies (3) Jason Day … U.S. Open (2); Canadian (11); WGC-Bridgestone (9); PGA Championship (1); THE NORTHERN TRUST (8); Dell Technologies (5) Jason Dufner … Memorial (3; defending); U.S. Open (4); Wyndham (6); TOUR Championship (7) Tony Finau … Memorial (3); Greenbrier (2); Canadian (4) Rickie Fowler … WGC-Bridgestone (3); THE NORTHERN TRUST (10); Dell Technologies (6) Branden Grace … U.S. Open (4); WGC-Bridgestone (3) Bill Haas … Wyndham (2) Russell Henley … Greenbrier (2) Charley Hoffman … Travelers (2); Canadian (3) J.B. Holmes … Greenbrier (5) Billy Horschel … St. Jude (1); TOUR Championship (4) Dustin Johnson … Memorial (12); St. Jude (8); U.S. Open (13); Canadian (10); WGC-Bridgestone (14); PGA Championship (9); Dell Technologies (11); TOUR Championship (6) Zach Johnson … John Deere (1); Open Championship (5); WGC-Bridgestone (6); TOUR Championship (8) Kevin Kisner … Memorial (5); Wyndham (6) Russell Knox … Dell Technologies (7) Matt Kuchar … Memorial (2); Canadian (3); WGC-Bridgestone (7); THE NORTHERN TRUST (9) Martin Laird … Barracuda (1) Marc Leishman … Memorial (5); Travelers (2); Open Championship (1) Hideki Matsuyama … Memorial (10); U.S. Open (6); WGC-Bridgestone (8; defending) William McGirt … Memorial (4) Rory McIlroy … Memorial (9); Open Championship (4); WGC-Bridgestone (7); Dell Technologies (5); TOUR Championship (3) Phil Mickelson … St. Jude (1); Open Championship (5) Ryan Moore … Travelers (2); John Deere (3); TOUR Championship (6) Kevin Na … Memorial (10); John Deere (9); Wyndham (3); THE NORTHERN TRUST (11) Louis Oosthuizen … U.S. Open (5); PGA Championship (4); Dell Technologies (3) Patrick Reed … Travelers (5); PGA Championship (8); Wyndham (7); THE NORTHERN TRUST (9); Dell Technologies (2) Justin Rose … Memorial (6); Open Championship (8); WGC-Bridgestone (7); TOUR Championship (2) Charl Schwartzel … Memorial (4); U.S. Open (5); Open Championship (6); WGC-Bridgestone (2) Adam Scott … U.S. Open (10); Open Championship (8); WGC-Bridgestone (3); Dell Technologies (9); TOUR Championship (6) Jordan Spieth … Travelers (6; defending); John Deere (7); Open Championship (9; defending); WGC-Bridgestone (10); TOUR Championship (4) Henrik Stenson … Open Championship (6); WGC-Bridgestone (4); PGA Championship (7); Wyndham (8; defending); Dell Technologies (9); TOUR Championship (2) Kevin Streelman … Memorial (1); Travelers (2) Justin Thomas … Dell Technologies (6; defending); TOUR Championship (3) Tiger Woods … Memorial (4); WGC-Bridgestone (3)

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