Emergency 9: Fantasy news from the Arnold Palmer Invitational

The revamped Florida Swing kicks off with defending champ Justin Thomas and a strong field at the 7,125-yard, par-70 PGA National Resort & Spa (Champion), the hardest non-major course on the PGA TOUR. Thomas has five top-10s in seven starts this year and is one of a handful of hot players coming into The Honda Classic. Among the others in the 144-man field are Rickie Fowler, the winner here two years ago and one of at least 12 players who live within 45 minutes of the course; Gary Woodland, at No. 3 the highest-ranked player in the FedExCup; 2016 champion Adam Scott; and newly-minted Puerto Rico Open winner Martin Trainer. THE FLYOVER Positioning is crucial at PGA National, especially at the 434-yard, par-4 16th hole, the midway point at the Bear Trap, the third toughest three-hole stretch on TOUR. Like the earth itself, 16 appears to be mostly water, so there will be plenty of irons off the tee to avoid becoming a grim statistic. Last year the hole played to a 4.262 average, among the top 50 hardest holes on TOUR, after players made just 34 birdies compared to 106 bogeys, 15 double-bogeys, and 4 dreaded “others.â€�   LANDING ZONE  The 179-yard, par-3 15th hole is often overshadowed by its rowdier neighbor two holes ahead, but as the opening hole of the Bear Trap, it sets the tone for this make-or-break three-hole stretch. With a 3.391 average last year, it was the third hardest par-3 on TOUR. Players must carry the water and hold the diagonal, left-to-right green without over-cooking the tee shot and finding the back-left greenside bunker. The hole can be especially tricky in the wind. WEATHER CHECK From PGA TOUR meteorologist Wade Stettner: “A relatively quiet weather pattern will set up across south Florida from Thursday through Sunday. Rain chances are minimal through the extended forecast with just a few passing showers possible at times. Temperatures will be above normal with highs in the 80s each day. Lighter winds are also expected.â€� For the latest weather news from Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., check out PGATOUR.COM’s Weather Hub. SOUND CHECK The three hardest … holes that we see all year, but it’s based a lot on the wind, too, and the wind is supposed to be down this week. BY THE NUMBERS  $8,245 – Average price of a new Accord in ’82, the first year of Honda’s title sponsorship of the tournament, making it the longest-running title sponsor on the PGA TOUR. +2.3 – Field average in relation to par at PGA National (Champion) last season, making it the second-hardest course on TOUR behind only U.S. Open host Shinnecock Hills. 62 – Double-bogeys or worse at the watery, par-3 17th hole last year, the most doubles or worse on any hole all season long. With a 3.53 average, it was the toughest par-3 on TOUR. 6 – Number of top-10 finishes for Gary Woodland, who leads the TOUR in that category. SCATTERSHOTS Thomas aiming for history: Defending champion Justin Thomas has less than two months remaining to join Tiger Woods, Jordan Spieth and Jack Nicklaus as one of the four youngest players in PGA TOUR history to reach 10 wins. Woods was the youngest to reach the milestone at 23 years, 6 months and 4 days. Should he win Sunday, Thomas, who would be 25 years, 10 months, 4 days old, would surpass Rory McIlroy, who was 25, 11, and 29 when he crossed the 10-win barrier. Reading the tea leaves: Since the start of the FedExCup era, eight of the 12 winners of The Honda Classic have made it to the season-ending TOUR Championship at East Lake. Opportunity knocks: Gary Woodland, who has been in the FedExCup top 10 for 13 of 15 weeks so far this season, is currently third but only 314 points behind leader Xander Schauffele. With Schauffele and No. 2 Matt Kuchar taking this week off, Woodland could take over No 1 with a win. Three’s misery: The field has averaged .671 over par at the watery 15th, 16th and 17th holes—the Bear Trap—over the last 10 years. That makes it the third toughest three-hole stretch on TOUR, of courses that have been played continuously over the last decade. Quail Hollow (16-18, +.884) has the hardest three-hole stretch, followed by Pebble Beach (8-10, +.684).

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Dustin Johnson defends the first of back-to-back World Golf Championships titles as the event, formerly based in Miami, makes its second visit to the Mexico City suburbs. Justin Rose, who chased down Johnson to win the WGC HSBC Champions last fall, ends a four-week break with an eye on becoming the third man in history to claim back-to-back WGCs. Jon Rahm, third a year ago, and reigning FedExCup champ Justin Thomas also highlight a small-but-solid WGC lineup. FIELD NOTES: The roster currently stands at 64, though that will grow with any late qualifiers. … Current FedExCup leader Patton Kizzire is assured of being added off the current points list, along with anyone who cracks the top 10 following the Honda Classic. … Adam Scott, now outside the world’s top 50 for the first time since 2001, has an outside chance of sliding back in with a good weekend at Honda. … India’s Shubhankar Sharma, twice a European Tour winner in its new season, is among eight entrants teeing it up in their WGC debuts. … Brett Rumford, the 2017 Australasian Tour money leader, makes his first WGC start since 2014. … Abraham Ancer gains a berth as the top Mexican in the world rankings. He’s in his second PGA TOUR season. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 550 points. STORYLINES: Johnson, who also prevailed three years ago in Miami, seeks a Mexican repeat and a third victory in a four-year span. He was a runaway winner at Kapalua, but found his quest for a third Pebble Beach crown derailed by Ted Potter Jr. … Tiger Woods, you’ll recall, owns a trio of three-peats at WGC stops. … A Rose triumph would allow him to join Woods and Johnson as the only men to win consecutive WGC starts. His victory in China was the first of three in the final two months of 2017, but he hasn’t teed it up since a tie for eighth at the Farmers Insurance Open. … Rahm has a pair of top-3 finishes in four WGC starts, including a loss to Johnson in last year’s WGC Dell Match Play final. … Contributing to the small roster is the absence of five names among the top 13 in the rankings, including Farmers winner Jason Day and Rory McIlroy. COURSE: Club de Golf Chapultepec, 7,330 yards, par 71. A debutant on the WGC scene last year, the club on Mexico City’s affluent outskirts celebrates its 90th anniversary in 2018. Construction was interrupted by the Mexican Revolution and led to architect Willie Smith – the 1899 U.S. Open winner – passing away in 1916 without seeing the course finished. Smith’s brother Alex took over the project and saw it to completion. The Mexican Open got its start at Chapultepec in 1944, remaining as host until 1960 when the tournament began rotating sites. A Percy Clifford redesign in 1972 made significant changes, with more upgrades were made ahead of its WGC introduction. 72-HOLE RECORD: 261, Tiger Woods (2006 at The Grove). Chapultepec record: 270, Dustin Johnson (2017). 18-HOLE RECORD: 62, Sergio Garcia and Retief Goosen (both 4th round, 2002 at Mount Juliet), Bubba Watson (2nd round, 2012 at Trump Doral), J.B. Holmes (1st round, 2015 at Trump Doral). Chapultepec record: 63, Jordan Spieth (3rd round, 2017). LAST YEAR: Johnson captured his fourth WGC title in his first start since ascending to No.1 in the rankings, holding steady down the stretch after a four-shot lead turned to a one-shot deficit. Jon Rahm used an eagle and two birdies after the turn to move in front, but Johnson pulled even with a birdie at No.15 and parred his way home for a closing 68. Rahm bogeyed twice in his last three holes, bumped out of second when Tommy Fleetwood (66) drained a 40-foot birdie at No.18. Johnson notched his 14th PGA TOUR victory and second in a row, following a Genesis Open triumph to ascend to No.1. A few weeks later, he’d make it three straight by taking the WGC Dell Match Play. HOW TO FOLLOW TELEVISION: Thursday-Friday, 2-7 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday, noon-3 p.m. (GC), 3-6 p.m. (NBC). Sunday, noon-2 p.m. (GC), 2-6 p.m. (NBC). PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday-Friday, 11:15 a.m.-2 p.m. (featured groups), 2-7 p.m. (featured holes). RADIO: Thursday-Friday, 1-7 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, 1-6 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com).

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A decade ago, as Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas were finishing up decorated college careers and testing the waters in pro golf, Tiger Woods was, well, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy had captured a pair of majors in eight-shot routes that were reminiscent of the sort of the dominance Woods had displayed in earlier days. How to Watch Capital One’s The Match: Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy vs. Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth Fast forward to today and Spieth and Thomas are set to face Woods, the 82-time TOUR winner who’s currently battling plantar fasciitis, and McIlroy, the reigning FedExCup champion and world No. 1. The four players will square off in The Match, a 12-hole contest under the lights at Pelican Golf Club in Belleaire, Florida on Saturday, Dec. 10 (TNT, 6 p.m.). “If you told me and Justin back in 2012, when we were in school, that we’d be playing a match against those two, we’d say things have gone pretty well,” said Spieth, who went 5-0-0 at the Presidents Cup in September, racking up all but one of those points with Thomas as a teammate. “We’d be pretty excited to play with those guys. I don’t want to lose sight of that.” This will be the seventh iteration of The Match, and the third time Woods will be a participant. It will mark the debut for the other three, although Thomas was an on-course commentator in 2020. All four players have been world No. 1, and all four have won the FedExCup, McIlroy (three) and Woods (two) having done so a combined five times. Thomas and Spieth have been a successful pairing in the Presidents and Ryder Cup since 2018, combining to go 8-2-0. They could be the favorites because of Woods’ injured right foot, which kept him out of the Hero World Challenge, a tournament he hosts, in the Bahamas last week. Although he said he has been told to stay off his feet, Woods anticipated he’ll be a go for The Match because he can ride a cart. “I can hit the golf ball and hit whatever shot you want,” Woods said. “I just can’t walk.” Any team would be in for a fight against Spieth and Thomas, who have combined for 28 PGA TOUR wins and five majors. They often rent houses and eat together on the road and have momentum after going 4-0-0 at the recent Presidents Cup and 1-1-0 at the 2021 Ryder Cup, both of which were won by their U.S. Team. They were even 3-1-0 in the United States’ loss at the 2018 Ryder Cup, when nearly nothing went right for the Americans outside Paris. “One, he’s an unbelievable player,” Spieth said of Thomas, whom first met while he and Thomas represented the United States as 14-year-olds in a junior tournament in France, “so it really helps to have someone that talented who’s on your side. That’s the No. 1 key. The other thing is knowing what to say, or when to say nothing, which is sometimes better.” In fact, all four players enjoy an easy familiarity. Thomas and Woods went 2-0-0 at the 2019 Presidents Cup, where Woods was the playing captain, and McIlroy has seldom been more prominent than he was this year, when he came from behind to win an unprecedented third FedExCup before capturing THE CJ CUP in South Carolina to recapture the No. 1 ranking. Spieth, a Dallas resident, is the lone participant in The Match who doesn’t make his home in south Florida. “I think we all are obviously very close,” Thomas said, “and we have an opportunity to just honestly go out like we would us four, go play a practice round and have some kind of match. I’m sure it will be very entertaining. It’s just going to be fun for us. “Even if it wasn’t on TV,” he continued, “us four would have a blast going out and playing 12 holes together, let alone under the lights at what sounds like a really cool golf course.” Spieth figures The Match will feature plenty of friendly banter. Woods describes Thomas as the little brother he never had. Spieth said he and Thomas always tend to “keep it light in between shots.” Spieth said he watched Thomas try his hand as an on-course commentator for The Match in 2020, when there were few live sporting events on TV as America grappled with the first waves of the pandemic. Spieth was curious how Woods would play and remembers Tom Brady’s hole-out from the fairway. This time around, he will be on the other side of the television screen. “It’ll feel like a dream foursome,” Spieth said, “or a Wolf game at home, or a match you’d love to set up for the Tuesday of the Masters. I don’t think it’ll be like a normal round. It’s about having fun, the banter. If you play well, you play well, but it’s about being entertainers for the night.”

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