Arnold & Winnie Palmer Foundation launches #LikeArnie campaign

One of the rewards for devout fans is rolling out in real time right now. Because school is out for the summer, the best former collegians are splashing onto the scene. They’re paying off your patience and passion to witness the next class of supreme talent. As it has over the years, the Travelers Championship is perfectly positioned to showcase it, and no one will argue that the bumper crop of youth in play this week just might be the best the tournament has ever hosted. Justin Suh, Collin Morikawa, Viktor Hovland and Matthew Wolff all are in the field of 156 on sponsor exemptions. Suh (Memorial) and Morikawa (Canadian) already have made their professional debuts, while the latter pair of former teammates at Oklahoma State University join the play-for-pay ranks at TPC River Highlands. Remarkably, of the four, only Wolff, who won a school-record six tournaments for the Cowboys, including the NCAA Division 1 individual title, never ascended to No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. He leaves his legacy as the No. 2 (to Hovland). Former champions Phil Mickelson (2001, 2002) and Russell Knox (2016) will be reviewed in Tuesday’s Fantasy Insider with Tony Finau, Patrick Reed, Tommy Fleetwood and other notables. You’re excused if you identify with TPC River Highlands as Bubba Watson’s personal playground. He’s connected for one-quarter of his dozen PGA TOUR victories in the tournament, including last year’s three-stroke triumph. It was the first time he didn’t need a playoff to prevail. To help frame Watson’s dominance here, consider that his margin in all-time earnings at the Travelers Championship of $2.111 million over 2007 champ Hunter Mahan in second would rank fourth on the same list. Unquestionably, Watson’s distance off the tee has mattered at TPC River Highlands, a stock par 70 that tips at just 6,841 yards. Over the last six seasons, the only shorter course at which the TOUR has stopped is Pebble Beach (6,816 yards), which is set up as a par 72 for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. (It measured 7,075 yards and played to a par of 71 for last week’s U.S. Open.) However, what makes the track in Cromwell, Connecticut, attractive and fun is that all skill sets can contend. Truth be told, muscle isn’t a prerequisite. It’s counterintuitive given its history as a scorer’s paradise, but course management plays a stronger role. This is revealed in a field scoring average of 69.596 last year. That was in the center of the bull’s-eye of expectations. Hitting greens in regulation never doesn’t matter, but its value is multiplied this week. Putting surfaces average only 5,000 square feet, but the Poa grass is prepped to run as long as 12 feet on the Stimpmeter. This combination yields a stingy scrambling percentage every year. Last year’s clip of 54.94 percent was 13th-lowest of all courses. It’s not quite the challenge of the U.S. Open on Poa at Pebble Beach, but it’s closer to that than for which it gets recognition. Oh, and the primary rough is allow to grow to four inches at TPC River Highlands, further emphasizing the objective of finding the shortest grass on approach. Mother Nature will greet the official start of summer in the heart of the tournament with gradually improving conditions. The likelihood of rain and storms exists through Friday, but terrific weather is expected on the weekend. Moderate winds at worst may influence scoring mid-tournament, while daytime highs will flirt with 80 degrees. ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE PGATOUR.COM’s Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton recaps and previews every tournament from numerous angles. Look for his following contributions as scheduled. MONDAY: Rookie Ranking, Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Medical Extensions, Power Rankings TUESDAY*: Sleepers, Fantasy Insider WEDNESDAY: One & Done THURSDAY: Champions One & Done * – Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, which also publishes on Tuesdays.

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PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland – It’s a dichotomy that has a drastically different meaning to each player. Brooks Koepka and Jordan Spieth both save their best performances for majors. For Koepka, that disparity is by design. Spieth’s perplexing record is the result of a frustrating slump. The two American twenty-somethings with multiple majors are in contention at another one. They both shot 5-under 137 over the first 36 holes at Royal Portrush to sit three shots behind 36-hole leader J.B. Holmes. Spieth continued to struggle with his driver, but rode a hot putter to a 67 on Friday. Koepka showed us at Pebble Beach that he can win a major without his best performance on the putting surfaces. That was the case again Friday. Koepka is trying to continue a run of dominance that can be compared only to Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus. He has finished first or second in all three majors this year, and five of the last six. Adding the claret jug to his pair of U.S. Opens and PGAs would give him three legs of the career Grand Slam. He’s trying to become the first person since Tiger Woods to win multiple majors in consecutive seasons. RELATED: Leaderboard | Tee times | Tiger finishes 6 over after 36 holes For Spieth, The Open is a reminder of better times. His 2017 victory at Royal Birkdale represents his last win on the PGA TOUR. His best opportunities to add a 12th PGA TOUR victory have come in majors. He threatened Augusta National’s course record before bogeying the final hole of the 2018 Masters and falling two shots short of Patrick Reed. Then Spieth played in the final group of last year’s Open at Carnoustie. This season, as his struggles increased, his T21 at the Masters was his first top-25 in a stroke-play event. Then he played alongside Koepka in Saturday’s final group at the PGA Championship. The long and brawny Bethpage Black, where thick rough necessitated a pitch-out for all but the strongest players, did not seem to fit Spieth. He rode the best putting week of his career (according to the Strokes Gained: Putting statistic) to a T3 finish. On Friday, Spieth played a four-hole stretch from Nos. 5-8 in 5 under par. It started with a two-putt birdie from 80 feet on No. 5. Then he knocked a 6-iron within 10 feet on the par-3 sixth hole. He holed a curling putt from off the green to eagle the seventh hole. Another 25-footer gave him a birdie at 8. He was 1 over par the rest of the way. “I posted a score that was pretty incredible from where I played my second shots from,â€� Spieth said. He’s hit just 11 fairways in two rounds at Royal Portrush. On Thursday, he compared this year’s venue to Royal Birkdale, the site of his 2017 Open triumph. Both courses require more aerial approaches than the typical links course. Spieth was second on TOUR in Strokes Gained: Approach two years ago, though. “My game is in a different place than it was then,â€� he said. “And I’m working to get it back to where it was.â€� He ranks 141st in that statistic this season and 179th in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee. Missing the fairways on Friday may have helped him in his continued quest to fix his swing troubles. It forced him to be creative instead of thinking of swing thoughts. “My shots out of trouble today were really, really nice, and I got some good breaks off of where I hit it to,â€� Spieth said. “But every now and again you’ll get one that sits down in a hole, like on 9, and you can barely get it out. So it’s not worth continuing to try and hit those cool shots. But I’ve got my money’s worth for two days.â€� In his previous two events, Spieth finished T65 at the U.S. Open and missed the cut at the Travelers. He worked hard on his game since his last start, but said he’s at least a few weeks away from trusting those swing changes. Koepka hasn’t been in contention in his most recent starts, either. He finished outside the top 50 in both the Travelers and the 3M Open. Unlike Spieth, Koepka isn’t bothered by those showings. They’re by design. Koepka insists that he doesn’t prepare for the standard PGA TOUR event. “When you see me on TV, that’s when I play golf,â€� he said in his pre-tournament press conference at Royal Portrush. He’s become an expert in bringing his best stuff to the majors. He finished runner-up at the U.S. Open after a T50 in his preceding start, at the RBC Canadian Open. Like at Pebble Beach, Koepka is contending despite being dissatisfied with his putting. Spieth aside, Royal Portrush rewards strong ballstriking. It’s difficult to play run-up shots to the elevated greens. The slopes around the greens repel mishits and make recovery shots more difficult. The rough is lush, as well. Koepka has hit 25 greens in two rounds and 19 of 28 fairways. “I haven’t made a putt all week,â€� Koepka said. “I just need to figure that out. If I can make some putts I could very easily be 10-under, and really maybe more.â€�

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