Expert Picks: Rocket Mortgage Classic

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 Mayakoba Golf Classic 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

Click here to read the full article…

SILVIS, Ill. – Some have called him a mad scientist and plenty have scoffed at his unorthodox methods – but perhaps in the end, Bryson DeChambeau is just pure genius. For all his quirkiness, the former U.S. Amateur winner and college standout, proved the wacky way he does things can win on the PGA TOUR with his breakthrough performance at the John Deere Classic. Dressed in his customary Ivy cap, a tribute to Ben Hogan and his fellow SMU alum Payne Stewart, DeChambeau has never been afraid to be different. And when he buried a birdie on the 72nd hole, his celebration was clearly a sign he felt vindicated in a world where all one needs is a Twitter account to throw barbs at someone different. DeChambeau does not walk the rank and file. He rocks a set of single-length irons and wedges. His swing stays on a single plane. He talks in complex physics terms as he dissects every little piece of data he can. Golf to him, is a science. And while no one has ever really figured the sport out, he is certainly going to keep trying. “There has been a lot of talk,â€� DeChambeau said of the doubters. “(This) is vindication I think. It’s definitely nice to have me win under such conditions.â€� The 23-year-old, who became the 19th player to make the John Deere Classic his first career win, admitted some people routinely give him grief. While there is also an outpouring of support at most venues, an event doesn’t go by without someone suggesting he should go back to more traditional shaft lengths. “I just throw it to the side and say, don’t even worry about it,â€� he says. “You’re going down the road you’ve chosen and you’re comfortable with it, and you know it’s going to in the end be the right thing.â€� To hear DeChambeau describe the road he is traveling can sometimes require being a physics major, as he is. But the essence is to try to simplify a complex game using the available data. “I try to understand every single variable in this whole game of golf,â€� he says. “It’s very, very difficult. But as time goes on, the more you can understand the variables the more consistent you can become just by understanding them. That’s what we’ve tried to accomplish.â€� DeChambeau believes the only player who may have come close is Tiger Woods. Yet for the 79-time PGA TOUR winner it was more of an art than a science. Woods, at his best, played with incredible feel. “Tiger figured it out, how to hit certain wedge shots into certain flags with a certain spin, certain trajectory. He just knew it. He could do it with his hands. He trained his hands. It was unbelievable,â€� DeChambeau adds. “I’ve always wanted to try and accomplish that, but I just go about it in a very methodical, scientific method research kind of a way.â€� Not only does DeChambeau believe his methods will prove great for his career, he claims his motivation is also for the rest of us out there. The average amateur. Even the hackers amongst us if you will. He wants to be part of bringing new players to the game. Showing people you don’t have to swing with the precision of an Adam Scott, or putt with the aplomb of Jordan Spieth. You should do what works for you. And here is his method that might just be good for you. He hit 14 of 14 fairways in the opening round at TPC Deere Run. On Sunday, he hit 17 of 18 greens. With less moving parts in the swing comes more consistency. And every one of us could use more consistency, right? “I want to make it easier for the amateurs. I think there is an easier way out there and people just haven’t figured it out. I hope I’m on the right track. I really believe I am,â€� he says looking as confident as Woods did in his prime. “People may think my golf swing is really weird and funky, but I think it’s one of the most consistent swings out here. If you look at in its entirety in slow motion, there are not very many moving parts. “I’m super confident with it. It makes it easy to repeat every single time.â€� But there were times where he started to doubt himself. Not that long ago in his continued efforts to find the perfect swing, things had gone awry. As the other 20-somethings continued to dominate the TOUR, he missed eight-straight cuts from mid-April to mid-June this season. In his own words, he thought he should be “killing itâ€� but he was far from doing so. After the eighth missed cut in a row at the U.S. Open, he decided to tinker a little less with his swing and his putting and try to get back to his basics. His personal testing had him swinging longer. And trying to hit it a little harder. It wasn’t working. On the greens, he’d tried a few things, including side saddle putting for a while, but nothing was getting the ball in the hole like it should. He sat 195th on the TOUR in Strokes Gained: Putting prior to this week. At TPC Deere Run, he was second in the field. By the Travelers Championship, DeChambeau was back to the swing from his college years where he became just the fifth golfer to win the U.S. Amateur and NCAA Championship in the same season. He finished T26. A week later at Quicken Loans National it was T17. The upward trend continued at the Greenbrier Classic (T14) and then of course his victory has followed. “Through that little transition, I gained immediate confidence back and I was able to perform nicely through the last four weeks and get the win this week,â€� he says. “I went into a bit of a low – a lull as well – trying to understand my golf swing a little bit more and was messing around with some things. “Unfortunately took me off track, but I realized quickly what I needed to do to get back on track.â€� It might not be the conventional track … but one gets the feeling he won’t be riding it alone in the future.

Click here to read the full article…

There's an old saying in sports that simply says, “Go hard or go home.” It is an apt line for the Wyndham Championship because if you find yourself in the field at Sedgefield Country Club and you're outside the top 125 in the FedExCup standings, it is the only option you have. Go hard or go home. With FedExCup Playoffs spots on the line a few players did just that. None more so than Jim Herman, who opened the week with a spot inside the top 200 at risk but ended it in dramatic fashion as the winner in Greensboro. Welcome to the Monday Finish where Herman and two others produced enough to extend their season and the final Playoffs field was set. THREE KEYS TO SUCCESS 1. When opportunity knocks, Herman knows you better be ready to take it. Herman has just 10 top-10s on the PGA TOUR from his 195 starts between 2010 and now. But the now 42-year-old can boast that three of those are wins. Herman might not be a regular contender on the PGA TOUR - in fact he came into Wyndham ranked a distant 192nd in the FedExCup standings, leaving him with a win or runner-up scenario to continue his season. But what he has been over the last five seasons is a pretty regular winner. He may have missed 27 cuts in his last 40 starts but there are plenty of players on TOUR who would switch places right now. 2. A record weekend. With four holes to go on Friday, Herman could have been forgiven for starting to crunch numbers in his head regarding staying inside the top 200 of the FedExCup and receiving a safety net for the 2020-21 season via a spot in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. He was outside the cut line at 192nd in the FedExCup and was already planning what to do with his family over the next three weeks. But three straight birdies allowed him the opportunity to play the weekend and Sedgefield, and perhaps gain some momentum before the time off. That momentum came quickly with a 9-under 61 on Saturday, with a 29 on the back side, that rocketed Herman to the periphery of contention. While starting Sunday four back might seem a little far, perhaps he could snag the runner-up finish he needed to continue his FedExCup claims. Forget that. A Sunday 63 meant a weekend total of 134 - which equaled the lowest weekend total for a winner in TOUR history (Stuart Appleby, 2010 Greenbrier). Herman played his last 32 holes with 15 birdies, an eagle and just one bogey. Incredible. 3. A hot putter. Herman turned up at Sedgefield struggling with his putting and decided to change to a cross-handed grip at Wyndham. It was a masterstroke. He ended the week making 444-feet of putts with a 59-foot eagle on the par-5 fifth on Sunday the shot that catapulted him into serious contention. All in all, Herman gained +6.234 shots on the greens, ranking him third in Strokes Gained: Putting. But his tee-to-green game was equally impressive. Herman was fifth in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee and fourth in Strokes Gained: Approach the Green. "I got here, and these greens are so perfect, you’ve got to be able to start the ball where you’re looking with the correct speed, and cross-handed just gets the ball rolling a little bit better for me at the moment and just went with it," Herman said. Read more on his putting switch and everything to do with his win here. OBSERVATIONS Jobs may not have been on the line thanks to the COVID-19 reduced schedule but FedExCup Playoffs spots still were and that still brings pressure. While Herman was one man to blitz his way into the Playoffs, two others with impressive pedigree did the same. Major champions Zach Johnson and Shane Lowry were the other two players who did enough to move from the outside of the 125 into the field at THE NORTHERN TRUST this week. Johnson came in ranked 129th and finished No. 104 after a tie for seventh at Sedgefield. He had missed the Playoffs a year ago but would not be denied again. "I don’t like missing cuts, I don’t like missing the FedExCup, I don’t like not being a part of it," Johnson said. "When there’s events that you’re not qualified for, which has kind of been new to me in the last year or two, it’s frustrating. I say that, it’s also motivating." Lowry came in No. 131 and finished 122nd with his T23 at Wyndham. "You look at what I’ve achieved in the last year or two, stuff like that shouldn’t really be as stressful as it was, but it was," said the reigning Open champion. "It’s a big deal. We all know if we can make it to Boston that a good week there, you know, can do big things." Those to fall out of the top 125 were Charl Schwartzel, Fabian Gomez and Russell Knox. Check out a full rundown here. Webb Simpson and Sedgefield are a pretty decent match. No wonder Simpson named one of his children Wyndham given he now has eight top 10s at Sedgefield, including the win in 2011, from 12 starts. Simpson has now finished in the top 3, albeit without winning a second title on the course, in the last four seasons after a T3 this week. In his last 16 rounds at Sedgefield, Simpson has shot 68 or better, averaging out at 65.3125. He has won over $3.5 million at the venue. He also secured $1.2 million this week for finishing third in the Wyndham Rewards regular season race and as such is in great shape for a tilt at the FedExCup. Cinderella doesn't always get to the ball. Rob Oppenheim, a 40-year-old grinder who has spent his career bouncing between the Korn Ferry Tour and the PGA TOUR in the FedExCup era but who has yet to make the Playoffs, had a golden opportunity on Sunday. Playing in the final group, Oppenheim needed to stay high on the leaderboard to have a chance of breaking the drought but unfortunately slipped to a tie for 15th thanks to some critical late bogeys. In the end he was four shots adrift of his goal. QUOTEBOARD "I hit it the way I wanted, I felt like I started on my line and about halfway to the hole I thought I made it and it just snapped off. It was disappointing because I had two good looks the last couple holes and just wasn’t able to convert," – runner-up Billy Horschel on a chance to force a playoff on 18. "You get old pretty quick out here with the young guys. They make you feel inadequate off the tee and especially long irons. it’s mentally frustrating. To overcome it all and get here for a third time is pretty amazing." – Jim Herman "It’s an ‘almost’ week. Almost good, almost a low one every day. Today was an almost." Webb Simpson after a fourth top 3 in four years at the Wyndham without winning. "I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m in the same place next week and I wouldn’t be surprised having a chance to win," Jordan Spieth remains upbeat despite continued struggles. WYNDHAM REWARDS The Wyndham Rewards Top 10 is a season-long competition that offers a $10 million bonus for the 10 golfers who end the regular season at the Wyndham Championship inside the top 10 in FedExCup points. The player atop the standings will earn $2 million, with varying payoffs for the others through $500,000 for the 10th place finisher. Justin Thomas officially is the Wyndham Rewards champion after there was no movement in the final week of the regular season. Thomas takes top spot with three wins on the season thus far and Collin Morikawa was able to hold off Webb Simpson for second to get $1.5 million. Jon Rahm kept the 10th and last slot, 37 points ahead of Xander Schauffele. The top 10 combined for 15 wins in the 2019-20 Regular Season. SOCIAL SNAPSHOT

Click here to read the full article…