2019 Editors’ Choice Awards

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Webb Simpson didn’t miss anything except the island green. On the verge of shattering the course record Friday at TPC Sawgrass — even a 59 was in play — Simpson hit sand wedge into the water on the notorious par-3 17th and made double bogey that ruined his round, but not his day at THE PLAYERS Championship. He still tied the record with a 9-under 63, and he had a five-shot lead, the largest in the 45 years of this tournament. “It wasn’t a mistake,” Simpson said. “Just the wrong club.” He was in no mood to let that sour his mood. Simpson simply couldn’t miss, whether it was a 35-foot eagle putt on his second hole or a 30-foot birdie putt up the slope and into the cup on the 15th . At that point, all he could do was laugh. And then he reached the 17th, playing 147 yards to a back pin, the light wind playing tricks with him. He kept backing off, trying to decide between sand wedge and pitching wedge. He said a few fans were telling him to hit it. The ball hit the wooden frame on the front of the green, caromed high in the air and landed on the back of the green with so much momentum that it rolled through the light collar of rough and disappeared into the water. “Everything is going in,” he said. “You feel like no matter what, you’re going to make it, and I grew up on an easy golf course so it reminded me of being back home, shooting low numbers. But at the same time, you’re at the TPC Sawgrass, so you know that trouble is everywhere, as you guys saw with me on 17.” And it will be there over the next two rounds. Simpson was the seventh player to shoot 63 on the Stadium Course — five since 2013 — and his 15-under 129 tied the 36-hole record set two years ago by Jason Day. Charl Schwartzel (66), Patrick Cantlay (68) and Danny Lee (66) were five shots behind. Tiger Woods at least gets to return on the weekend. He made the cut on the number (1-under 143) after a 71 in the easier morning conditions. Woods was outside the cut line until Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas each made bogey on the 18th. Spieth three-putted from 35 feet, though he shot 68 and ended three straight years missing the cut. Rory McIlroy wasn’t so fortunate. He was inside the cut line until hitting into the water on the 17th and making double bogey. Conditions were ideal for scoring for the second straight day. Simpson took that to another level. He ended the front nine with a 15-foot birdie putt on the par-5 ninth for a one-shot lead, and then he took off. Starting with an up-and-down at the par-5 11th, Simpson ran off six straight birdies — three straight from the 20-foot range, the most unlikely birdie with the one from behind the 15th green, and another up-and-down from left the of the green on the par-5 16th. Spieth was 5 under on his round through 11 holes and wondered if he had the low round of the day. And then he saw a leaderboard. “It was just amazing,” said Spieth, who played with McIlroy and Thomas. “We were talking about it throughout the round, all three of us. We were like, `Man, I hope he shoots 59.’ And at the same time, we’re saying if he shoots 59, can you imagine how hard the setup is going to be tomorrow?” The real challenge will be catching Simpson. Only three other players have led by as many as three shots through 36 holes at THE PLAYERS — Lanny Wadkins (3) in 1979, Greg Norman (3) in 1994 and Day (4) in 2016. All of them went on to win. “If you’re off a little bit, you make bogeys or double bogeys as easy as you can make birdies,” Simpson said. “I don’t think any lead is safe. … There’s no defensiveness in my game tomorrow.” Schwartzel never came close to a bogey, only missing two greens, and just barely. Cantlay only had one bad swing and one bad break, both on the par-5 ninth, that led to bogey. Lee shot a 31 on the back nine with a double bogey on the 11th hole. Simpson left them all in his wake. “The most entertaining golf in our group was watching Webb’s score,” said Justin Rose, who played behind Simpson and shot 72. “It’s a miracle round. To be 11-under par, it’s a shame he doesn’t finish it off. But 17 is a hard hole to get through. I’m sure he was nervous playing that hole. We’re all nervous playing that hole, but an 11-under par round, that green I’m sure looks even smaller.” Woods had wedges in his hand on his opening three holes and never got it close for birdie, and it was like that all day. He was in the feature pairing with Phil Mickelson and Rickie Fowler, and Woods was the only one to make the cut. Mickelson went 79-73 and missed the cut for the fifth time in the last six years. Fowler was in good shape until losing a ball in a tree on the sixth hole for the first of consecutive double bogeys. He shot 71 and missed by two shots.

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The final stop in Florida of the 2017-18 PGA TOUR season is 45th edition of THE PLAYERS Championship. THE PLAYERS Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass has hosted this event since 1982 and during the month of May since 2007. TPC Sawgrass will host this event for the last time in May this week as it will switch back to its original calendar position of March in 2018-19. Si Woo Kim posted 10-under-par 278 to win by three shots last year and become the youngest winner in history. TPC Sawgrass, which underwent multiple changes before last year’s event, will welcome 144 of the world’s best players including all of the top 50 in the OWGR. The top 70 and ties will play the weekend and the winner this year will pocket $1.98 million, 600 FedExCup points and a five-year exemption on TOUR. The argument continues as to whether or not this is the “fifth major” on the calendar. From a gaming standpoint, the purse ($11 million), first-place money and the FedExCup points to the winner (600) answers that question quite easily. This is not the week to “save” players for down the road in any format. TALES OF THE TAPE Si Woo Kim became the youngest winner at 21 years and 10 months surpassing Adam Scott in 2004. Fred Funk is the oldest winner at 48 in 2005. He’s also the last Jacksonville-area resident to win if that’s an angle you were checking. Kim’s final round was a bogey-free 69 that saw him come from three-shots off the lead of 54-hole leaders J.B Holmes and Kyle Stanley. Dating back to 2007, 54-hole leader(s) have won exactly twice with Martin Kaymer (2014) and Jason Day (2016) turning the trick. Holmes fired 84 to finish T41 and Stanley 74 to cash T4. Day shot 80 in the final round last year proving again that this course can reward and ruin players all in the same round. Day had the last laugh in 2016 as his wire-to-wire victory was only the fifth occurrence in history and first since Hal Sutton in 2000. He tied the course record of 63 in Round 1 and never looked back eventually winning by four shots. The interesting part of 2016 to me was Ken Duke, Colt Knost and Matt Kuchar all sharing a piece of T3 along with Justin Thomas. Day, runner-up Kevin Chappell and Thomas obliterate the golf ball off the tee while Duke, Knost and Kuchar don’t. Fred Funk has also never been accused of teeing it high and letting it fly! Other known bomber Graeme McDowell was T9. The first and second rounds were the easiest played in the history of the tournament. Day didn’t come close to scaring the tournament record of 264 set by Greg Norman in 1994 as the weather on Saturday didn’t cooperate. Day’s four-shot victory is the largest since the move to May. Fowler’s unbelievable finish in 2015 included the lowest four-hole score in history as he closed birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie TO FORCE A PLAYOFF. The three-hole playoff saw Sergio Garcia eliminated but Kevin Kisner had one more chance to knock Fowler out in sudden death. Fowler held his nerve again on No. 17 and stuck it to less than five feet for the winning birdie. Kisner had a noble showing for his first PLAYERS reinforcing that course history isn’t a requirement at TPC Sawgrass. Justin Thomas also made his debut and was T24 and co-led the field with 21 birdies. He also made 10 in one round. Fowler’s comeback was so entertaining folks forgot 54-hole leader Chris Kirk shot 75 to finish T13. Day shot 81 in the second round. The last three winners, as shown above have added to the complexity of cracking the code this week. This reinforces the belief that there is more than one way to solve Dye’s riddles at TPC Sawgrass. I’ve have reached back into the winning trends from the ShotLink Era (2004-now) to see the what parts of the game were essential to the May winners. Since 2004, 13 of the 15 winners have finished in the top 24 GIR. The only two that haven’t have won two of the last three trophies! I’m leaning on the longer trend this week. The trend I like even better is eight of the last 15 winners have finished in the top three in GIR. Similarly, eight of the last 15 winners have finished first or second in SG: tee to green. Of those 15, only two (Tim Clark, 2010 and K.J. Choi, 2011) finished outside T11. Players that don’t hit GIR better be able to get up-and-down. Of the last nine winners, eight were in the top 10 in scrambling. Since the Par-5 holes aren’t 660 yards most will score well and make hay. It will be the Par-4 scoring that separates the field as eight of the last 15 winners have been either first or second in this category. NOTE: Golfers inside the top 20-ish in each statistic on the 2017-18 PGA TOUR are listed only if they are scheduled to compete this week. * – Finished inside the top 10 at THE PLAYERS since 2013 or is a former winner. Greens in Regulation Rank  Golfer 1  *Henrik Stenson 2  *Kyle Stanley 3  *Jordan Spieth 4  Pat Perez 5  Gary Woodland 6  *Brendan Steele 6  *Kevin Streelman 8  Bubba Watson 9  *Rafael Cabrera Bello 10 *Rickie Fowler 12 Emiliano Grillo 13 Dustin Johnson 14 *Brian Harman 14 *Justin Thomas 16 Charles Howell III 17 Keegan Bradley 18 Chez Reavie 19 Patrick Cantlay 20 Scott Piercy SG: Tee to Green Rank  Golfer 1  Dustin Johnson 2  *Jordan Spieth 3  *Sergio Garcia 4  Luke List 5  *Justin Thomas 6  *Henrik Stenson 7  *Francesco Molinari 8  Paul Casey 9  Tommy Fleetwood 10 Keegan Bradley 11 Scott Piercy 12 *Brendan Steele 13 Patrick Cantlay 14 Bryson DeChambeau 15 Tony Finau 16 *Hideki Matsuyama 17 *Tiger Woods 18 *Kevin Chappell 19 *Kevin Streelman 20 Byeong-Hun An Scrambling Rank  Golfer 1  *Jordan Spieth 2  Webb Simpson 3  *Louis Oosthuizen 4  *Henrik Stenson 5  *Rickie Fowler 6  *Kevin Na 7  *Brandt Snedeker 9  Cameron Smith 10 *Kevin Streelman 12 *Justin Thomas 13 *Jason Day 15 Brian Gay 16 *Phil Mickelson 17 *Justin Rose 18 *Ben Crane 19 Chez Reavie 20 Chris Kirk Bogey Avoidance Rank  Golfer 1  *Henrik Stenson 2  *Jordan Spieth 3  *Rickie Fowler 4  *Kevin Streelman 5  Dustin Johnson 6  Webb Simpson 7  Cameron Smith 7  *Justin Rose 9  Chez Reavie 10 Charles Howell III 11 *Brandt Snedeker 12 *Justin Thomas 13 Zach Johnson 15 Emiliano Grillo 16 William McGirt 17 Bubba Watson 18 *Matt Kuchar 19 *Phil Mickelson 20 *Hideki Matsuyama Par-4 Scoring Rank  Golfer 1  *Henrik Stenson 2  *Justin Thomas 3  Dustin Johnson 3  Jon Rahm 5  *Rickie Fowler 5  *Jason Day 5  *Jordan Spieth 8  *Justin Rose 9  *Phil Mickelson 9  Chez Reavie 9  *Marc Leishman 14 Patrick Reed 14 Bubba Watson 14 *Brian Harman 14 Cameron Smith 14 Scott Piercy 14 Zach Johnson 20 Webb Simpson 20 *Matt Kuchar 20 *Brandt Snedeker 20 Emiliano Grillo 20 Pat Perez 20 *Kevin Chappell There is nowhere for the bombers to miss as the two-and-a-half inches of Bermuda rough doesn’t allow accurate recovery. There aren’t many places to easily get up-and-down for the inaccurate as the greens are just 5,500 square feet on average. The TifEagle Bermuda greens, not even two years old, will probably fluster and frustrate the best putters. The way to crack the code this week is impossibly simple: miss it in the right spot or hit it in the perfect spot. Great shots are rewarded while marginal shots suggest anything can happen. Target golf combined with indecision, weather, false visual clues and the pressure of dealing with the world’s best field will also be part of the examination. Pete Dye’s design will test every club in the bag and every will in the soul of the world’s best. This is one of the most challenging tournaments to win for golfers and gamers alike. The pedigree of winners here has varied greatly over the years as have the contenders. In the 36 previous years as host, no player has repeated and frankly, nobody has been close. Before last year Pete Dye expanded four greens to add extra pin placements that had never been seen before and also had all of the surfaces regrassed. Once the guys think they have it figured out around here, something else changes. Holes No. 12 was turned into a drivable Par-4 and has even more changes this year. Players will have their second test at navigating the pond between Holes Nos. 6 and 7 this year as well. Even though it has four Par-5 holes (Par-72) and plays to only 7,189 yards it is one of the toughest tests on TOUR as Dye challenges the players to work the ball both ways off the tees and both ways off the fairways and sometimes on the same hole. Don’t forget the weather is an important factor as well as no two holes play consecutively in the same direction. The wind is always being calculated and re-calculated and is part of the Dye master plan. As with one of the most difficult courses anywhere, I will lean on the best-of-the-best to handle my fantasy business this week. I’ve learned over the years that TPC Sawgrass rewards GREAT golf. Guys who are in current form and are in the categories above will populate my rosters across all formats. As you’ll see below, some are just getting things figured out here while others haven’t figured it out in a while. Gamers are going to be faced with some difficult decisions because the talent pool is deep, the course is Dye-ian and the stakes are massively high. Good luck! Rob Bolton’s Power Rankings will give you more juice for the week so make sure you stop by. It’s also who I trust with the weather each week so pay attention! NOTE: The groups below are comprehensive to assist in data mining. Inclusion doesn’t imply automatic endorsement in every fantasy game as all decisions are specific to your situation. CONFIDENCE MEN BUILDING CONFIDENCE OTHER SIGNS OF CONFIDENCE

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It’s one of the most interesting days in golf. Each June, hundreds of players compete for spots in the U.S. Open. The participants range from PGA TOUR winners to club champions. They all start on equal footing. Only their score, not their resume or name recognition, will determine if they get a tee time at Pebble Beach. Nearly half of the U.S. Open field will be filled by qualifiers, giving the Cinderella stories plenty of opportunities to compete in the year’s third major championship. Qualifying started in May, but the bulk of the qualifiers will be held on June 3. Check back here for results from all 11 sites (Note: x-won playoff; (a) – amateur). JUNE 3 England: Walton Heath Canada: RattleSnake Point Florida: Streamsong (Black) Georgia: Hawks Ridge Maryland: Woodmont New York: Century/Old Oaks Ohio: Brookside/Scioto Ohio: Springfield Washington: Wine Valley MAY 27 Kuwana Country Club Kuwana, Japan Kodai Ichihara, a two-time winner on the Japan Tour last year, took medalist honors after making 16 birdies in 36 holes. Ichihara, 37, finished fourth on the Japan Tour money list last season after winning twice. His biggest victory came at the Dunlop Phoenix, where he beat a field that included Brooks Koepka and Hideki Matsuyama. Shugo Imahira, who won last year’s Japan Tour money list, took the second spot. Mikumu Horikawa, who finished second to Ichihara at last year’s Dunlop Phoenix, took the final spot in a playoff over Chan Kim. Qualifiers 1. Kodai Ichihara, 65-66 2. Shugo Imahira, 65-67 T3. x-Mikumu Horikawa, 67-66 1st alt. Chan Kim, 65-68 2nd alt. Hiroyuki Fujita, 67-69 MAY 20 Bent Tree CC/Northwood Club Dallas, Texas Two PGA TOUR winners shared medalist honors, while a former major champion also was among the qualifiers. Brendon Todd and Nick Taylor both won in 2014. Todd’s win came at the AT&T Byron Nelson, while Taylor won the Sanderson Farms Championship. Todd was in second place halfway through the 2014 U.S. Open, but shot 79-69 on the weekend to finish T17. He made his only other U.S. Open start the following year. He has made six starts this year as he tries to fight his way out of a slump. He has two top-25s this season, his first since 2015. He’s 189th in this season’s FedExCup. This will be Taylor’s first U.S. Open start as a pro. He played twice as an amateur, in 2008 (MC) and 2009 (T36). He shot a second-round 65 at Bethpage Black to set the record for lowest U.S. Open round as an amateur. Taylor is 111th in this season’s FedExCup. Last year, he shot a 63 in the final round before the FedExCup Playoffs to crack the top 125 in the FedExCup and keep his card. Mike Weir will play his first U.S. Open since 2013 after shooting 69-67 in the qualifier. The 2003 Masters champion made the cut in the two previous U.S. Opens at Pebble Beach. Scottie Scheffler, who is second on the Web.com Tour points list, also qualified. Scheffler, 22, has a win and two runners-up this season. He was the low amateur in the 2017 U.S. Open. Qualifiers T1. Brendon Todd, 65-66 T1. Nick Taylor, 66-65 3. Carlos Ortiz, 66-67 4. Julian Etulain, 71-64 T5. Scottie Scheffler, 68-68 T5. Mike Weir, 69-67 T5. Brian Davis, 69-67 T5. Matt Jones, 66-70 T9. x-Charlie Danielson, 67-70 T9. x-Austin Eckroat (a), 65-72 1st alt. Cody Gribble, 68-69 2nd alt. Jared Wolfe, 67-71 Notables MC. Brian Harman, 68-70 MC. Mackenzie Hughes, 70-68 MC. Shane Bacon, 73-77

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