Back on the green: Tiger Woods spotted at Florida golf course with his son

Everyone wants to be the front-runner, but the Masters lays out so many sensational choices that this is the most dangerous week of the season pre-FedExCup Playoffs to be the target. Concluding the season’s first major in the same position often feels more like an escape than the achievement that it is.  With that confidence-building pep talk for the rest of us setting the framework for our decision at Augusta National, this is also the time of the season when you should first take stock of who’s left on your board for the long haul.  My process is simple. I literally print out the top 50 of the latest Official World Golf Ranking, and then cross off everyone I’ve burned. In theory, only those inside this bubble will build my short list to carry me through an entire season of 48 tournaments. Of course, it never works out that way due to field construction and a handful of PGA TOUR non-members on it. Through the first 22 events, I’ve used only 16 of the current top 50.  From here, and especially for PGA TOUR Fantasy One & Done presented by SERVPRO gamers, you’re going to want to set aside at least three notables for the Playoffs since FedExCup/fantasy points are quadrupled for that series.  What you read next is a little bit of evidence with a mixture of good and bad luck, so take it for what it’s worth.  En route to my league title in 2015-16, I reserved Justin Rose, Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth for the first, third and fourth events of the Playoffs, respectively, and still won despite a T31, T42 and T17 from those cornerstone investments. (Emiliano Grillo’s T33 at TPC Boston didn’t help much, either.) So, despite that patience, including the planned stymie with Spieth as the anchor, and no top 30s in the seven tournaments immediately preceding the TOUR Championship, I crawled to the finish line. It was a painfully ugly win, but it was also a lesson learned – build for now and later.  Once you’ve determined who’s still available from the top 50, highlight the notables who you can’t imagine going an entire season without using. Once you’ve done that, assign locked-in locations for the obvious. I’ve always advised setting Sergio Garcia aside for THE PLAYERS or The Open Championship because no one owns a more consistently strong record at both crapshoots than the defending champion of this week’s Masters. Weave in his continuously superb play just about everywhere and you’ll appreciate that confidence entering either tournament.  In this space a week ago, I proclaimed the probability that Rose would be my pick for the Masters. After going through the aforementioned process, I’ve changed my mind. Given my position (of power) in pursuit, I’m going with the modern-age horse for the course – Spieth. Rose could fill in the blank that Garcia doesn’t later.  I’m left with McIlroy, Jason Day and Henrik Stenson atop my list of probables for the Playoffs (with the backburner thought of the Ryder Cup tugging at the Euros), while Rickie Fowler still figures to size up as a strong contender in the majors. And I’ll still have the likes of Matt Kuchar, Patrick Reed, Louis Oosthuizen, Bubba Watson, Tommy Fleetwood, Branden Grace and Kevin Chappell at my disposal. And who knows, there’s plenty of time for Brooks Koepka to crash the conversation.  So as not to swerve around the focus of the Masters entirely, it’s one of those weeks when you really don’t even need my approval. It’s chalk city straight from the Power Rankings. In fact, the more valuable analysis is to fire away with brief parenthetical phrases to describe my concern on some you might be considering and shouldn’t. All can be found in QUESTION MARKS in the Power Rankings:  • Jason Dufner (track record)  • Tommy Fleetwood (inexperience)  • Martin Kaymer (track record and right wrist)  • Francesco Molinari (track record)  For two-man gamers eyeing Fred Couples, shop elsewhere. After opening the PGA TOUR Champions season with a T6 at Hualalai, his chronically sore back prevented him from defending his title at the Chubb Classic and teeing it up at the Toshiba Classic down the street from his residence in Newport Beach, California. I slotted him 20th in last year’s Power Rankings and got railed for it. He then finished T18. You know I wasn’t surprised, but I will be if he’s a factor this year 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.  Daniel Berger … St. Jude (1; two-time defending); Travelers (2)  Paul Casey … Masters (1); Travelers (4); WGC-Bridgestone (5); Dell Technologies (2); TOUR Championship (3)  Kevin Chappell … Valero (1; defending); St. Jude (5); WGC-Bridgestone (2); Dell Technologies (3)  Jason Day … Masters (4); PLAYERS (13); U.S. Open (2); Canadian (11); WGC-Bridgestone (9); PGA Championship (1); THE NORTHERN TRUST (8); Dell Technologies (5)  Jason Dufner … Fort Worth (2); Memorial (3; defending); U.S. Open (4); Wyndham (6); TOUR Championship (7)  Tony Finau … Valero (5); Memorial (3); Greenbrier (2); Canadian (4)  Rickie Fowler … Masters (8); Wells Fargo (7); PLAYERS (9); WGC-Bridgestone (3); THE NORTHERN TRUST (10); Dell Technologies (6)  Sergio Garcia … Masters (3; defending); PLAYERS (5); Open Championship (1); TOUR Championship (4)  Branden Grace … Heritage (1); Valero (2); U.S. Open (4); WGC-Bridgestone (3)  Brian Harman … Fort Worth (4); John Deere (3)  Russell Henley … Greenbrier (2)  Charley Hoffman … Heritage (7); Houston (5); Valero (1); Fort Worth (4); Travelers (2); Canadian (3)  Billy Horschel … Valero (3); St. Jude (1); TOUR Championship (4)  Dustin Johnson … Masters (4); 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 … Fort Worth (2); John Deere (1); Open Championship (5); WGC-Bridgestone (6); TOUR Championship (8)  Kevin Kisner … Heritage (4); Fort Worth (1; defending); Memorial (5); Wyndham (6)  Matt Kuchar … Masters (5); Heritage (1); Valero (10); PLAYERS (11); Fort Worth (6); Memorial (2); Canadian (3); WGC-Bridgestone (7); THE NORTHERN TRUST (9)  Marc Leishman … Fort Worth (7); Memorial (5); Travelers (2); Open Championship (1)  Hideki Matsuyama … Masters (5); Wells Fargo (13); PLAYERS (9); Memorial (10); U.S. Open (6); WGC-Bridgestone (8; defending)  Rory McIlroy … Masters (2); Wells Fargo (1); PLAYERS (8); Memorial (9); Open Championship (4); WGC-Bridgestone (7); Dell Technologies (5); TOUR Championship (3)  Phil Mickelson … Masters (4); Wells Fargo (2); St. Jude (1); Open Championship (5)  Francesco Molinari … PLAYERS (2)  Ryan Moore … Masters (8); Travelers (2); John Deere (3); TOUR Championship (6)  Louis Oosthuizen … Masters (2); U.S. Open (5); PGA Championship (4); Dell Technologies (3)  Pat Perez … Heritage (5); Valero (7)  Patrick Reed … Travelers (5); PGA Championship (8); Wyndham (7); THE NORTHERN TRUST (9); Dell Technologies (2)  Justin Rose … Masters (1); Wells Fargo (4); PLAYERS (9); 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 … Masters (4); PLAYERS (5); U.S. Open (10); Open Championship (8); WGC-Bridgestone (3); Dell Technologies (9); TOUR Championship (6)  Webb Simpson … Wells Fargo (7); Fort Worth (4); Travelers (8); Greenbrier (5); Wyndham (1)  Jordan Spieth … Masters (1); Heritage (12); Fort Worth (2); Travelers (6; defending); John Deere (7); Open Championship (9; defending); WGC-Bridgestone (10); TOUR Championship (4)  Brendan Steele … Valero (6); Wells Fargo (7); Travelers (3)  Henrik Stenson … Open Championship (6); WGC-Bridgestone (4); PGA Championship (7); Wyndham (8; defending); Dell Technologies (9); TOUR Championship (2)  Justin Thomas … Wells Fargo (9); Dell Technologies (6; defending); TOUR Championship (3) Jimmy Walker … Valero (6); Greenbrier (8); Dell Technologies (7)  Bubba Watson … Memorial (6); Travelers (5); Greenbrier (8); WGC-Bridgestone (1); TOUR Championship (4)  Gary Woodland … Wells Fargo (5); Barracuda (1); Dell Technologies (3)  Tiger Woods … Masters (2); WGC-Bridgestone (3)

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Click here for the latest field at Muirfield Village Golf Club as of May 26. Winner – Memorial Tournament Matt Kuchar David Lingmerth Hideki Matsuyama William McGirt Winner – The Players Championship (Last 4 Yrs Plus Year of Win) Jason Day Rickie Fowler Si Woo Kim Winner – The Masters Tournament (Last 4 Yrs Plus Year of Win) Adam Scott Jordan Spieth Bubba Watson Winner – U.S. Open (Last 5 Years) Dustin Johnson Justin Rose Webb Simpson Winner – PGA Championship (Last 5 Years) Jason Dufner Winner – The Open Championship (Last 5 Years) Zach Johnson Phil Mickelson Winner – THE TOUR Championship (Last 3 years) Billy Horschel Winner – World Golf Championships Event – Bridgestone Inv. (3yr) Shane Lowry Winner – HSBC Champions – Last 3 years Russell Knox Winner – Arnold Palmer Invitational (Last 3 Years) Matt Every Marc Leishman Winner – Tournament Winner in the Past Year Aaron Baddeley Jonas Blixt Greg Chalmers Kevin Chappell Adam Hadwin Brian Harman Mackenzie Hughes Billy Hurley III Ryan Moore Rod Pampling Pat Perez D.A. Points Jon Rahm Patrick Reed Cameron Smith Brendan Steele Hudson Swafford Justin Thomas Last Named U.S. Ryder Cup Team J.B. Holmes Brooks Koepka Last Named European Ryder Cup Team Rafa Cabrera Bello Last Named U.S.Presidents Cup Team Bill Haas Chris Kirk Last Named International Presidents Cup Team Steven Bowditch Anirban Lahiri Danny Lee Charl Schwartzel Winner – Prior Year U.S. Amateur Championship Curtis Luck Winner – Prior Year British Amateur Championship Scott Gregory Money List Leaders from International Tours Brett Coletta Matthew Griffin Yuta Ikeda Peter Uihlein Sponsors Exemption – Web.com Tour Finals Ryan Armour Grayson Murray Sponsors Exemption – Members not otherwise exempt K.J. Choi Brendon de Jonge Retief Goosen Sam Saunders Vijay Singh Sponsors Exemption – Unrestricted Padraig Harrington Ryo Ishikawa Soren Kjeldsen Hunter Mahan Carl Pettersson Ryan Ruffels Top 50 – World Golf Ranking – Graduate Decline System Tommy Fleetwood Emiliano Grillo Gary Woodland Kevin Kisner Ross Fisher Top 70 on Prior Season’s FedEx Points List Roberto Castro Sean O’Hair Jason Kokrak Scott Piercy James Hahn Fabian Gomez Jim Herman Smylie Kaufman Charley Hoffman Tony Finau Harris English Jamie Lovemark David Hearn Luke Donald Kevin Streelman Brian Stuard Kyle Reifers Vaughn Taylor Daniel Summerhays Ben Martin Top 70 Current Season’s FedExCup Points List Sung Kang Luke List Lucas Glover Kyle Stanley Keegan Bradley Patrick Cantlay Ollie Schniederjans Bud Cauley Kelly Kraft Scott Brown Martin Laird Kevin Tway J.J. Spaun Michael Kim Nick Taylor Current Year / Prior Year FedExCup Points (Alternating) Ricky Barnes Morgan Hoffmann Patton Kizzire Patrick Rodgers Harold Varner III Stewart Cink Graham DeLaet Johnson Wagner Cheng Tsung Pan Alex Cejka Byeong Hun An Jim Furyk

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NAPLES, Fla. — Charley Hoffman and Ryan Palmer had 10 birdies in modified alternate shot Saturday for a 10-under 62, setting the 36-hole record in the QBE Shootout and taking a two-shot lead into the final day. Teammates for the first time, Hoffman and Palmer were at 26-under 118. That broke the record by one shot previously shared by Harris English and Matt Kuchar in 2020 and Jason Day and Cameron Tringale in 2014. Hoffman and Palmer led by two shots over Tom Hoge and Sahith Theegala, both playing the event for the first time. They combined for a 60 at Tiburon Golf Club. In modified alternate shot, both players hit tee shots and then they alternate shots the rest of the way. The final round will be fourballs. English and Kuchar, who have won the QBE Shootout three times together, also had a 62 and were four shots behind along with Day and Billy Horschel, who had a 61. That’s the same score they had in the scramble format. The two LPGA Tour players in the field were nine shots behind. Nelly Korda and Denny McCarthy had a 67, the same score as Lexi Thompson and Maverick McNealy. Korda and McCarthy took a double bogey on No. 11, and then played their last six holes in 7-under par. Six of the 12 teams had 65 or lower in the modified alternate shot. “We were in a pretty good rhythm. We were giving ourselves birdie chances and we were knocking most of them in,” Hoffman said. “The reality is we were just doing our thing. Obviously we saw the low scores, but that means there’s birdies out there and we tried to attack them in and we did a pretty good job.”

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