Bubba + Brandt = Team bounce-back

KAPALUA, Hawaii — The only thing that resembled paradise to Xander Schauffele at Kapalua was his name atop the leaderboard Friday at the Sentry Tournament of Champions. Through bursts of rain and gusts that topped 30 mph, Schauffele managed to go bogey-free for the second straight day with a 5-under 68 that gave him a one-shot lead over Patrick Reed and Joaquin Niemann. Schauffele is trying to become the first repeat champion of this winners-only event in 10 years. On this day, he was trying to keep it together. Schauffele finished with a birdie, a two-putt par from just under 100 feet, and a 7-foot birdie on the final hole. That gave him the lead at 9-under 137, the highest 36-hole score to lead at Kapalua since 2008. “A day of adjustment is sort of how I like to look at it, and glad we were able to come out on top,” Schauffele said. Reed made three straight birdies around the turn, lost two good scoring chances late, made up for that with a 30-foot birdie on the 17th and wound up with a 66 for the best score of the day. Niemann didn’t make a birdie until the ninth hole and limited the damage enough for a 72. Rickie Fowler (71) was two shots behind. Schauffele won last year with a 62 in the final round, a score that now seems out of reach on a Plantation course with entirely new grass on fairways that remain soft because of rain. The greens have shelves that weren’t there a year ago. And the weather was never this rough when he won. “Besides looking the same and looking over at Molokai, very different,” Schauffele said. “We’re on the same property, but for the most part there’s no memory I can fall back on when it comes to making a putt or hitting a bump-and-run shot on a certain hole since the green layouts are very different.” Justin Thomas was poised to join Schauffele until he missed the green at the 17th to the right and made bogey, and made another bogey on the 18th when his drive went left into the waist-high native grass. He was three strokes back after a 73. Thomas had a moment that sized up the day. Hitting into the wind, his divot flew back toward his face and deposited in the back of his shirt, leaving tiny splotches of mud on his white pants. The round was stopped twice, without ever taking players off the course, during a few burst of showers early that left standing water in too many spots. When told it would resume, Paul Casey asked if there was room to hit off the first tee. A puddle stretched from one end to the other, but just behind the tee markers. It was a sign that Kapalua would play longer than ever, and that much was evident throughout the day. Shots that typically bounce and roll out some 30 yards were rolling a few feet, if not hopping back from their pitch marks. Matthew Wolff hit a tee shot on the 18th that plugged in its pitch mark. The temperature felt tropical. Otherwise, this was a test.

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Answer: This golf tournament, while traditionally contested in April, was shifted to November for the first time in 84 editions. Question: What is the 2020 Masters? The playful tribute to the late Alex Trebek, the long-time host of "Jeopardy!," aside, the Masters really is a tradition unlike any other, and especially amid a pandemic. Not only are there two editions during the 2020-21 PGA TOUR super season, they will occur consecutively as it concerns the six majors. For more on the when the field was determined, a review of the weather, how Tiger Woods prevailed and other information, scroll past the projected contenders. RELATED: The First Look | Inside the Field | Nine things to know: Augusta National POWER RANKINGS: MASTERS TOURNAMENT Tuesday's Fantasy Insider will include 2015 champ Jordan Spieth, Francesco Molinari, Justin Rose, Rickie Fowler and first-timers Collin Morikawa and Matthew Wolff among the notables. The construct of the field for the 2020 Masters was announced months ago but it's timely to revisit it once more. The qualifiers for the tournament were set as if it had been staged in its usual slot in April. Winners of eligible tournaments since play resumed in June qualified only for the 2021 Masters. With the recent withdrawals of Joaquin Niemann and Sergio Garcia, both due to COVID-19, the field stands at 92 as of Monday afternoon. Twenty-six (or 28 percent) are first-time participants, a not-so-insignificant fact given the documented value of course knowledge at Augusta National Golf Club. Because the par 72 is so consistent over time, the golfers aren't just playing the course, they're playing against relative experience of others. It's as close to a home-course advantage as a veteran can get at what technically is a neutral site. The variable that's new to all is the weather, at least as it concerns the seasons. However, with traces of summertime heat and humidity hanging on, it's possible if not probable that only the reduction of daylight hours will feel different to everyone who has traveled to Augusta, Georgia, in early April. Daytime highs will eclipse 70 degrees and even flirt with 80 during the first two rounds. Winds will be light, but rain is all but guaranteed thanks in part to the encroachment of what's left of Tropical Storm Eta that made landfall in southern Florida late on Sunday night. Suffice it to say that the SubAir system has been oiled and will be engaged. Advance forecasts were suggesting much cooler air. The compromise is that it'll likely be warm enough for fewer hours every day, but the impact on the distance the ball flies won't be as substantial as previously considered. Even so, because Augusta National is a second-shot test and favors placement off the tee over length, the conditions could influence roll on the fairways and the greens. Because of the unprecedented transition to the fall, comparisons to the last edition in 2019 should be left to the record only, but there's still a curiosity for how Augusta National will stack up against it this week. With a scoring average of 71.865, the 2019 field was the first to break par since 1992. The average driving distance of 296.5 yards was much longer than usual (although only holes 1 and 2 are measured) as driving accuracy also rose. Those two statistics rarely evolve with a direct relationship, but all other facets of completing a round also were easier. Defending champion Tiger Woods navigated a scintillating finale to prevail and he led the tournament in greens in regulation. That's job one for anyone who intends for him to slip the green jacket over his shoulders come Sunday. ShotLink isn't utilized at Augusta National, but it's not dumbing down the recap by attaching other analytics to his performance. Woods ranked 10th in converting GIR into par breakers, 14th in putts per GIR and T10 in bogey avoidance. On the whole, it was just enough to escape with a one-stroke victory, his 15th in a major. For the second consecutive edition, Augusta National tips at 7,475 yards. The addition of 40 yards to the par-4 fifth hole last year yielded a scoring average of 4.336. Not only was it the hardest hole on the course, but it also was the 10th-hardest of 522 par 4s in all of 2018-19. That's notable because as recently as 2016, it wasn't inside the top-half hardest holes on the course. In addition to a new format that will send groupings off split tees in the first two rounds, the 36-hole cut has been modified to low 50 and ties. The previous provision of including all within 10 strokes of the lead has been eliminated. Included in a series of spoils, the champion will receive a lifetime exemption into the Masters, five-year exemptions into the other three majors and a five-year membership exemption on the PGA TOUR. 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: Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Medical Extensions, Rookie Watch, Power Rankings TUESDAY*: Sleepers, Fantasy Insider * – Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM's Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, which also publishes on Tuesday.

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ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. — Robert Streb kept his game from coming undone over the first hour Saturday, and then pieced together enough birdies for a 3-under 67 to build a three-shot lead going into the final round of The RSM Classic. RELATED: Final leaderboard | Streb looks for second win at The RSM Classic Streb came from five shots behind when he won at Sea Island six years ago, his only PGA TOUR title. This time, he has a lead over Zach Johnson (65) and Bronson Burgoon (67). Streb was at 17-under 195. Camilo Villegas pulled within one shot of the lead going to the back nine of the Seaside course until a two-shot swing at the 10th that cost him momentum. Streb hit his approach to 8 feet for birdie. Villegas was just on the fringe 15 feet away, ran it by 5 feet and missed that to fall three shots back. Villegas added a bogey on the 13th, didn’t make a birdie on the back nine and had to settle for a 70. He was five shots behind as he tries to win for the first time since five years. Streb had to earn back his full PGA TOUR card a year ago, and then missed the FedExCup Playoffs for the third straight year. He kept his status because of the pandemic-shortened year, and a victory Sunday would give him an exemption through August 2023. Even so, he knows from experience not to look too far ahead. It was in 2014 when Streb closed with a 63 to make up a five-shot deficit before winning a three-man playoff. Six players were within five shots of the lead going into Sunday. Even with no spectators and only limited corporate clients allowed, Johnson will feel an entire community behind. He lives at Sea Island, and no resident has ever won this event. Winless since the 2015 Open Championship at St. Andrews, Johnson rallied late with three birdies over his last five holes, finishing with a 30-foot birdie putt. Burgoon had five birdies in a six-hole stretch on the back nine — the exception was a bogey on the 14th, playing straight into a strong wind along the water — to overcome a rough start and get into the final group. Emiliano Grillo had a 65 and was four shots behind, while Kevin Kisner (66) and Kyle Stanley (68) were five back. Streb began his round with a quick hook and escaped trouble with par. From the left side of the second fairway, 123 yards to a back pin and facing the wind, he left it on the front of the green and had to two-putt from 75 feet. He came up well short of the green on the par-3 third and had to get up-and-down from 65 meet, making an 8-foot par putt. "It wasn't the greatest start, but got out of there with a bunch of pars and tried to find some consistency and it got better," Streb said. It never felt easy, but he wasn’t losing any ground. He made his first birdie with a sand wedge to 3 feet on No. 8, and the rest of the round was relatively stress-free except for a couple of more two-putts from 50 feet or longer.

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