Colsaerts confident of claiming win in Turkey

How it works: Each week, our experts from PGATOUR.COM will make their selections in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf. Each lineup consists of four starters and two bench players that can be rotated after each round. Adding to the challenge is that every golfer can be used only three times per each of four Segments. The first fantasy golf game to utilize live ShotLink data, PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf allows you to see scores update live during competition. Aside from the experts below, Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton breaks down the field at this year’s Travelers Championship in his edition of the Power Rankings. For more fantasy, check out Sleepers, Rookie Ranking, Qualifiers and Reshuffle. THINK YOU’RE BETTER THAN OUR EXPERTS? The PGA TOUR Experts league is once again open to the public. You can play our free fantasy game and see how you measure up against our experts below. Joining the league is simple. Just click here to sign up or log in. Once you create your team, click the “Leagues” tab and search for “PGA TOUR Experts.” After that? Pick your players and start talking smack. Want to represent the fans against our experts? SEASON SEGMENT

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ERIN, Wis. — Jason Day raved about Erin Hills. He joked about buying a house in Wisconsin and giving cheese a try should he win the U.S. Open this weekend. He brushed off Cleveland’s NBA Finals loss to Golden State. Day is feeling good again. On the course and, more important, at home. Day’s mother, Dening, had surgery for lung cancer in March, and the World No. 3 golfer said Tuesday she is doing well. She had more scans recently, and the results are on the way to her doctors. For Day, it’s a little peace of mind after a rough time at the start of the year. “When someone has cancer and you don’t know whether or not they’re going to survive or what the outcome is going to happen — and plus with my mom, who sacrificed a lot for me to be in this position today, it was tough,” said the 29-year-old Day, who was 12 when his father died of stomach cancer. “I mean it was — I don’t wish it upon anyone. It’s something that I could never — I didn’t want to focus on golf. I didn’t want to be on the golf course, because I knew she was at home.” Day withdrew from the Dell Technologies Match Play in March so he could be with his mother. He returned for the Masters, where he tied for 22nd at 2-over par. After missing the cut in the Zurich Classic and tying for 60th at THE PLAYERS Championship, his game started to round into form. Day, who began the year ranked No. 1, got into a playoff with Billy Horschel at AT&T Byron Nelson last month, but lost when he missed a short par putt. He followed with another encouraging performance at the Memorial, tying for 15th at 5 under. “Momentum, it’s key — I think momentum is more key during tournament rounds than actually looking at it,” he said. “Because, yeah, I’m starting to get a lot more confidence over the last two events I’ve played compared to the first nine events that I played. But I look at more during the round knowing that, OK, the middle part of my round’s probably the hardest part of my round, per se.” The U.S. Open at expansive Erin Hills, located about 35 miles northwest of Milwaukee, brings Day back to the same state where he claimed the biggest of his 10 PGA TOUR victories two years ago. The Australian broke through for his first major win in the 2015 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits in Sheboygan, shooting 20 under for a three-shot victory over Jordan Spieth. So naturally, he is quite fond of the home of the cheeseheads. “There’s a lot of good memories coming back,” he said. “The people are fantastic. I love the people up here. Very, very nice. Very genuine people. If I pick one up here, great. That would be a really neat thing to be able to win my first two majors in the state of Wisconsin. Definitely like the golf courses up here. They’re tremendous golf courses. But I’m just trying to do the best job I can.” Day’s best work usually plays quite well at the U.S. Open. He has five top-10 finishes in the last six years, including runner-up at Congressional in 2011 and Merion in 2013. “Everyone is going to run into some sort of trouble out there, everyone is,” he said. “It’s a matter of how you handle yourself in that moment to prepare yourself to greatness. … I’d much rather the course be harder than easier. Tough conditions, windy conditions, rain whatever it is, as long as it’s harder, I feel like I play a lot better in conditions like that.”

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DUBLIN, Ohio – Jack Nicklaus was watching for something intently in Patrick Cantlay’s final round at the Memorial Tournament Presented by Nationwide. It wasn’t the crisp irons under pressure. It wasn’t hip turn, or club head speed, face angle, or anything else Trackman might measure. It was a smile. “He did it at 15!,â€� Nicklaus interjected in Cantlay’s winners conference when it was suggested Cantlay hadn’t smiled until he putted out on 18 to all but secure his second PGA TOUR victory. The reason Nicklaus was looking for it was some advice he had passed on to Cantlay on Friday at Muirfield Village. You see Cantlay has always had a special relationship with Mr. Nicklaus. From the time he was awarded the Jack Nicklaus Award as the best collegiate player in America in 2011 the two have had a kinship. Nicklaus goes as far to say Cantlay, and all of the other previous winners of the award, are “in many ways my children.â€� But on Friday, having seen Cantlay not turn his stellar talent into more wins since he won in November 2017 at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas, Nicklaus seized an opportunity. “I was in there having lunch after the early morning round on Friday, and he grabbed me aside and said, you need to go out there, have a good time. Look around when you’re out there. Look at all the people having a great time. And then you need to have a great time and realize that that’s why you’re there and relax and go have fun and go win the golf tournament,â€� Cantlay recounted of Nicklaus’ advice. Related: Cantlay’s comeback from tragedy | Tiger cards final-round 67 | FedExCup standings | Final leaderboard “And I definitely said that to myself down the stretch today on the back nine. It put me a little more at ease, and I hit a lot of really nice quality shots with the lead, coming down the stretch.â€� It wasn’t the first time the two had conversed on golfing matters. In fact a few years ago Cantlay went to Nicklaus’ house and the two spent 90 minutes going over strategy for Muirfield Village. Clearly that was time well spent. But this week the 18-time major winner had something he really wanted to get across. “He reminds me a lot of me,â€� Nicklaus said. “I get so wrapped up in what I’m doing I forget about everything else that’s going on around me. And I sit there and say, you know, if I can help them, pass that along, maybe it will help them. And if it did, that’s great. If it didn’t, it didn’t make any difference, he won a golf tournament, either way.â€� The thing with Cantlay is whether he is aware of it or not, he always looks serious. Like Batman serious. He’s locked in. He’s all business. You never see the Phil Mickleson thumbs up to the masses or a Rickie Fowler selfie session. It’s just not his style. “I understand that’s my look. I try and be natural. So I try and be how I am all the time. And that’s kind of how I am all the time,â€� Cantlay shrugs. “I was walking in this morning and somebody said, ‘it can’t be that bad, can it?’ And I don’t even realize that’s the look on my face. I was in a great mood this morning. “But I feel like if I tried to be any way else, it wouldn’t be me. I’d be trying to force it. So I just try and be me out there. I definitely am focused and intent on what I’m doing. And I think that’s part of me and I think that’s part of why I have success.â€� And he had plenty of success on Sunday. His 8-under 64 is the best ever final round by a winner at the Memorial. It pushed him to 19-under 269. Only Tom Lehman (268 in 1994) has been lower over four rounds. He joined Tiger Woods as the only former Nicklaus award winner to win Nicklaus’ tournament. Cantlay is not surprised though. Well he is surprised … but only that he hasn’t won more. This was a guy who spent eons as the world’s best amateur and was touted as better than Jordan Spieth in the junior years. The delay was heavily due to a serious back injury that killed almost three years for him. But once he came back healthy and won, he thought he’d keep winning. “I definitely feel like I’ve had a lot of close calls since my last win. I’m a little surprised it’s taken me this long,â€� Cantlay said. “I really did (think the first win would open the floodgates). I’ve played a lot of really good golf, a lot of really solid golf. And so I think I was closer than it seems. So maybe this one will do it.â€� Maybe it will indeed. And if it does both Patrick and Jack will be smiling.

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