Expert Picks: Sentry Tournament of Champions

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – It was an opportunity to reflect, and these days that means checking the Snapchat archives. When Collin Morikawa learned that he was playing the first two rounds of THE PLAYERS Championship with two peers who also turned pro last year, he consulted the social media app to see what he was doing this week last year. He saw his posts from a practice session at the Metropolitan Golf Links in Oakland, California. That’s where the training facility for the University of California men’s golf team is housed. Morikawa was having short-game contests with his teammates as they prepared for a tournament. Now he’s preparing for another event, but he won’t be carrying his own bag or eating a box lunch in the middle of a 36-hole day. He’ll be playing for one of the most prestigious titles on the PGA TOUR. A lot has changed in the last year. The same can be said for playing partners Viktor Hovland and Matthew Wolff. In June, those three players shared a stage at the Travelers Championship. They were declared as the next stars on the PGA TOUR. They’d all had impressive college careers, but similar declarations are made on an annual basis. All three have lived up to the hype. As a result, they’ll share the Stadium Course’s first tee at 1:18 p.m. Thursday. They earned their spots in the year’s strongest field by winning shortly after turning pro. “I know we’re going to have a bunch of smiles on our face, we’re going to go have fun and hopefully shoot some low scores,â€� Morikawa said. They’ve done plenty of that already. Wolff won the 3M Open in his third pro start. Morikawa was runner-up but won three weeks later at the Barracuda Championship. And Hovland recently earned his TPC Sawgrass tee time by winning the Puerto Rico Open. Add Joaquin Niemann and Sungjae Im to the list, and we’ve seen five players under the age of 23 win on TOUR since July. Seven players from that demographic won on TOUR in the preceding five seasons – and just four won from 1985-2000. No one can remember a time when three players won so quickly after turning pro. Perhaps in the days of hickory shafts. So, the obvious question is whether this is a trend or just a coincidence, a confluence of talent that all turned pro at the same time.  “There’s hardly any need for an apprenticeship anymore. They hit the ground like veterans,â€� said Golf Channel commentator Brandel Chamblee. “I think having (a smartphone) is like having Butch Harmon or Harvey Penick in your pocket. You have access to the best teaching and a library of video. And I think social media is working as peer review for teachers. Now, if their ideas fail, they get called out on social media. It’s making instruction better. Now teaching is much more information-based. They know exactly how you create power. They guessed about it before.â€� Today’s young players are following in the footsteps of not just Tiger Woods, but also Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth. Morikawa, Hovland and Wolff were all born after Woods turned pro. He showed the importance of physical fitness and made young players reconsider what’s possible. They also saw Spieth win on TOUR as a teenager, then watched Spieth and Thomas win majors and FedExCups before turning 25. Their development has undoubtedly been aided by technology, and not just titanium drivers and solid-core golf balls, but also analytics that help players receive in-depth analysis of their own games and the courses they play. Training aids such as Trackman, force plates and 3D motion analysis have revolutionized instruction. Swing coaches are no longer emphasizing static positions. The focus is on creating the proper forces. That’s why you see unique swings like Wolff’s and Niemann’s and Hovland’s. “What you had to figure out on your own took so much longer,â€� said 2018 PLAYERS champion Webb Simpson, who’s 34. “Now we have so much at our fingertips on our phone or on TrackMan. That’s one of the main reasons guys are improving a lot faster and they come out here and they’re ready to win. They understand their games more than I did even out of college. If you would have asked me out of college what are the strengths of my game, I probably would have fumbled over that question. But now guys can tell you, based on statistics, what makes them great. “Even in the fitting world, you can have a golf shaft that feels great and looks great, but your numbers on TrackMan are saying otherwise, so you quickly eliminate that one and go to the next one. It’s helping guys across the board.â€� Unlike the Class of 2011 – which includes Spieth and Thomas, as well as Xander Schauffele, C.T. Pan and others – this current trio all graduated high school at different times. Morikawa spent four years at Cal. Hovland played three years at Oklahoma State, while Wolff made the leap after a record-setting sophomore season at Oklahoma State, where he won the NCAA Championship and swept the national player of the year honors. He’s the third player to win an NCAA individual title and PGA TOUR event in the same year, joining Tiger Woods and Ben Crenshaw. “The fact that those three guys have won already is unbelievable,â€� Thomas said. “They probably don’t even realize how impressive it is. But they also understand how talented they are and we do too.â€� They’ve all done it with impressive ball-striking. Hovland ranks seventh in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee, while Wolff is 11th and Morikawa is 36th. Morikawa’s iron play has already earned acclaim from his peers on TOUR, and it’s supported by the fact that he’s fourth in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green. Hovland is 51st in that statistic. The trio has an average ranking of 18th in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and 73rd in Strokes Gained: Approach. That average drops to 190th in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green and 119th in Strokes Gained: Putting. Golf Channel commentator Arron Oberholser believes they are a product of their times. Mark Broadie’s Strokes Gained statistics came to the PGA TOUR when Wolff, Hovland and Morikawa were still in elementary school. “When I grew up, it was, ‘Drive for show and putt for dough,’â€� Oberholser said. “These guys grew up after Strokes Gained and Mark Broadie came on the scene and showed the importance of driving distance and approach play.â€� Analysts like Scott Fawcett and Richie Huntare use ShotLink to optimize players’ course management. Morikawa said he gets such stats from TaylorMade. Wolff also is a TaylorMade staffer. Fawcett has taught seminars to many of the top college programs, including Oklahoma State. That data gives young players knowledge about all the new courses they’ll face. “ShotLink data allows us to impart the knowledge to a 22-year-old that guys used to wait 10 years to accrue,â€� Fawcett said. All of these advancements can only take players so far, though. At the end of the day, it comes down to talent. “I think the technology part has helped in training, but when you’re standing out there on the 18th fairway with a 7-iron in your hand and a one-shot lead and you need par to win, TrackMan is not really helping you too much at that moment,â€� said Jim Furyk, the 17-time TOUR winner who becomes eligible for PGA TOUR Champions in two months. “You still have to be mentally prepared and ready and believing in yourself. There’s still a mental side to the game, and it’s still an art in some respects.â€� Perhaps, but more players are painting masterpieces at a young age.

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Bubba Watson shoots a final-round 63 to come from six back and capture his third Travelers Championship (2010, ’15) by three over 54-hole leader Paul Casey (72), J.B. Holmes (67), Stewart Cink (62) and Beau Hossler (66). Welcome to the Monday Finish, where Watson, 39, became the first player to collect his third win of the season on the PGA TOUR. FIVE OBSERVATIONS 1 Watson is enjoying a career year. Threes were wild for the winner, whose third victory of the season and third at TPC River Highlands moved him to third in the FedExCup. “Earlier this year I had … my third win in L.A.,â€� Watson said. “Now I just need one more in Augusta and that would be great. Get a different jacket. I like this jacket, don’t get me wrong. I love this. I’ve got a few of them. “But, yeah, there are certain places that we’ve built our schedule,â€� he continued. “Everybody builds their schedule around places they’ve seen, loved, the atmosphere, all of that comes into play. Around here there are a lot of driver holes where I can hit some drivers and shape it.â€� 2 This, after enduring one of his worst. Was it just last year that the popular, long-hitting left-hander was searching for answers? It sure doesn’t seem like it. Watson says he lost around 25 pounds with an undisclosed illness, a period in which he lost energy and mental focus, and began to feel sorry for himself. Better health and a return to familiar equipment were crucial in making his way back, but so was the purchase of a Prevost bus with which he could travel the TOUR with his wife, Angie, and their kids, Caleb and Dakota. They parked the bus next to runner-up J.B. Holmes for Travelers week, and the kids played with one of their best friends on TOUR, Holmes’ golden doodle, Ace. “Caleb and the kids love playing with Ace,â€� Watson said. “(Caleb) said, ‘I’m pulling for J.B.’ I said, ‘Because of his dog or because of J.B.?’ And he didn’t answer. But I think it’s because of his dog.â€� 3 Cink isn’t slowing down. He’s 45 and hasn’t won on TOUR since the 2009 Open Championship, but two-time Travelers winner Stewart Cink’s T2, his best result since Turnberry, was a big step in the right direction. In fact, Cink had visions of not only winning but going into the exalted sub-60 territory. “It did creep into my mind after I birdied 15,â€� Cink said. “I had three holes left to go, and I knew I needed three birdies to shoot 59. But quickly I remembered the golf tournament was on the line. And it would mean a lot more to me to win the Travelers Championship than to shoot a 59. Scores don’t matter as much as winning does. “So I thought about it,â€� he added, “and quickly gathered myself and hit it over the green and bogeyed.â€� Cink said he was surprised by how quickly his recent putting fixes have paid off, and calmed by the presence of his wife, Lisa, and his final-round playing partner, friend Charley Hoffman. “I had a really good heart of gratitude today before the round,â€� Cink said. “I just felt really calm about today.â€� 4 Casey’s solid year continues. Paul Casey, who won the Valspar Championship earlier this season, continues to enjoy a solid season despite a bittersweet ending at the Travelers. On the plus side, his T2 was his third top-five finish in his previous three starts at TPC River Highlands. It represented the 53rd top-10 finish of his career, and moved him up to 12th in the FedExCup. Also, despite waking up with a stiff neck and not feeling like himself, he remained in contention until the bitter end. On the minus side, he didn’t win, and his lost four-stroke lead entering the final round was the largest on TOUR since Dustin Johnson failed to convert a six-shot lead at the 2017 World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions. “There was a lot of fight in there,â€� Casey said. “I fought my golf swing all day. You can see coming down the last couple of holes, hitting the pull 8-iron on 16, and the flair right on 17 just about summed it up. Yeah, incredibly frustrating.â€� 5 Chase Seiffert is the second straight feel-good story out of Florida State. For the second straight year, Seiffert, a college teammate of U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka’s at FSU, Monday-qualified for the Travelers. And for the second straight year, Seiffert contended. The big difference: A year after he faded to a T43 finish, Seiffert fired a final-round 64 to finish T9, getting him into the A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier field in two weeks. “I was going in today and treating it like my Monday qualifier for The Greenbrier,â€� Seiffert said. “So, I went out and had a nice warm-up session, felt really calm all the way through the round, I was fortunate enough to pitch in two times on the front and keep it rolling after that. “It feels really good,â€� he added. “I feel like my game’s good enough to be out here full-time and kind of confirms that with the way I’ve been playing this week and last year here as well.â€� Seiffert becomes the fourth Monday qualifier to finish in the top-10 this season, joining Scott Strohmeyer (T4/Sanderson Farms Championship), Trey Mullinax (T8/Valspar Championship) and Julian Suri (T8/Houston Open). He also beat Koepka (65, T19). The last Monday qualifier to win was Arjun Atwal at the 2010 Wyndham Championship. FIVE INSIGHTS 1 Watson’s 24 putts in the final round was easily his best effort of the week. (He took 30 putts in the first and third rounds, and 28 in the second.) And while the 63 when he was at his best on the greens was crucial, he also won in part because he limited the damage when he was at his worst off the tee; he hit just 5 of 14 fairways but salvaged an even-par 70 in the first round. 2 Of his 11 stroke-play victories, Watson has come from behind in the final round seven times. His six-shot comeback Sunday matched his effort at the 2010 Travelers, when he picked up his first win in a playoff with Corey Pavin and Scott Verplank, and marked the 14th time in 33 chances that a TOUR winner has come from behind in the final round this season. 3 The biggest comeback at the Travelers was by Brad Faxon, who was seven back and won in 2005, while the late Billy Casper is still the gold standard overall. Buffalo Bill collected four wins, in ’63, ’65, ’68 and ’73, a mark that may be in jeopardy. Watson, at 39, would seem to have plenty of time left to tie Casper with a fourth Travelers victory, and go ahead with a fifth. 4 Cink tied his career low with a 10-birdie 62 in the final round, during which he took just 22 putts, six fewer than he did in any other round. He was making his 559th start on TOUR; only five other current players have more. He moved up to 72nd in the FedExCup. 5 The week’s biggest surprise might have been J.B. Holmes’ T2, which represented the fifth runner-up finish of his career. In five previous starts at TPC River Highlands, Holmes had finished no better than T37 (2012). He moved up to 50th in the FedExCup.

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