Expert Picks: Wells Fargo Championship

The Zurich Classic of New Orleans presents a moment to take a breath in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf. The game does not include the team event, so there is no action this week. Segment 3 will resume with the inaugural Mexico Open at Vidanta. So to will the traditional Draws and Fades that are omitted below. RELATED: How Team Format Works | Play Pick ‘Em Live | The First Look However, PGA TOUR Pick ‘Em Live will turn over on Wednesday for Zurich. Bets for outrights, Top 10s, Top 20s and R1 Leader will be among the options as usual. Regarding Pick ‘Em Live for a moment, remember that no matter how many entries are submitted for any tournament, prize money does not change. So, while the Masters always draws the most attention – it had more than 10,000 entries – you battled against more bodies for a payday than last week’s RBC Heritage that hosted 4,816 entries … for the same payday! Pick ‘Em Preview for Zurich will publish as usual on Wednesday. Mike Glasscott and I always include tips and tricks that will help you contend. I also practice what I preach. In the first eight tournaments, I’ve logged a third (Honda), 10th (PLAYERS) and a 19th (Heritage). If you’re an owner in a season-long format, your patience now is rewarded. After this week’s 160-man Zurich in which all golfers through conditional status have gained entry, and extending through the 156-man Wyndham Championship, 10 of the 11 opens will host the maximum. The Mexico Open has reserved tee times for 132, but the entire Korn Ferry Tour graduate reshuffle (at least) is expected to qualify on merit. (Bryson Nimmer, Jeffrey Kang, Patrick Flavin and Turk Pettit emerged from the open qualifier for the tournament on April 18.) So, while a few guys deep in the overall pecking order will moonlight on the KFT when the PGA TOUR is engaging in invitationals in the coming months, you can expect a regular schedule from your charges for whom playing time had been sporadic. It’s also the time to strike for free agents if you already haven’t. POWER RANKINGS WILD CARD Bubba Watson & Harold Varner III (-125 for a Top 20) … There are a few teams not included in my Power Rankings or Sleepers that present a compelling narrative, nonetheless. This is one of them. Of course, HV3 nipped Watson with a cross-court heave that found the hoop at the buzzer for victory at the Saudi Invitational in early February, and he’s kept the pedal down in recent weeks, connecting five cuts made from a T6 at THE PLAYERS to a T18 at the Match Play to a T3 at the RBC Heritage where he was the 54-hole leader. However, he’s 0-for-4 in the team format at TPC Louisiana. On the flipside, Watson hasn’t missed a cut in all four tries. He’s recorded a pair of top 10s (2017, 2021) and he prevailed as an individual in 2011. The lefty’s form upon arrival this week hasn’t been as impressive as his partner’s, but by no means is playing poorly enough not to deserve this value. RETURNING TO COMPETITION Brandon Hagy & Cameron Percy (+450 for a Top 20) … Both are coming off health-related issues, so it’s a coincidence that they’ve joined forces. Hagy called it quits during his second round of the RBC Heritage due to a sore back. He’s just 7-for-18 on the season and 200th in the FedExCup. Meanwhile, Percy has been sidelined since a T4 at Corales, his second top 10 in his last three starts. He forfeited the top-10 exemption into Valero to have lens-replacement surgery on both eyes (link: https://twitter.com/cameronpercy1/status/1514589194689122311). In the thread of that tweet, the Aussie quipped that he hopes to “see the hole from outside 15 feet now,” but the irony is that, if he’d qualify for official rankings, the 47-year-old would lead the PGA TOUR in conversion percentage outside 25 feet. He’s holed four of 32 attempts from that range. Both of these guys are familiar with TPC Louisiana, and they’re a combined 5-for-5 in the team format. Odds sourced on Tuesday, April 19 at 3 p.m. ET. For live odds visit betmgm. NOTABLES WDs None. RECAP – RBC HERITAGE POWER RANKINGS Power Ranking Golfer Result 1 Shane Lowry T3 2 Justin Thomas T35 3 Cameron Smith MC 4 Collin Morikawa T26 5 Joaquin Niemann T12 6 Matt Fitzpatrick MC 7 Dustin Johnson MC 8 Daniel Berger T21 9 Corey Conners T12 10 Sungjae Im T21 11 Webb Simpson T59 12 Patrick Cantlay P2 13 Matt Kuchar T3 14 Tyrrell Hatton T26 15 Chris Kirk MC Wild Card Jordan Spieth Win SLEEPERS Golfer (Bet) Result Nate Lashley (+550 for a Top 20) MC Alex Noren (+175 for a Top 20) T42 Mito Pereira (+250 for a Top 20) T26 Scott Stallings (+450 for a Top 20) MC Brendon Todd (+400 for a Top 20) T26 GOLFBET Bet: Daniel Berger (Top 5), Sungjae Im (Top 10) and Tyrrell Hatton (Top 20) at +10000 Result: Berger (T21), Im (T21), Hatton (T26) BIRTHDAYS AMONG ACTIVE MEMBERS OF THE PGA TOUR April 19 … Matt Jones (42) April 20 … John Senden (51) April 21 … none April 22 … Eric Axley (48) April 23 … none April 24 … Jason Bohn (49); Lee Westwood (49); Jonas Blixt (38); Carlos Ortiz (31) April 25 … Nick Watney (41)

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He’s back on the course for the first time in two months. He has been busy with business and watching tennis. So the question looms again: Are his game and body up to this?

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HONOLULU — Nick Taylor pitched in for eagle to get his round headed in the right direction, and he kept going until he finished with a good break and one last birdie for an 8-under 62 and a two-shot lead Friday in the Sony Open in Hawaii. RELATED: Leaderboard | Morikawa, Niemann in position for rebound win It’s still as crowded as the H-1 at the top, typical of this tournament. Taylor gave himself at least some separation with a gap wedge to 6 feet for birdie on No. 8, and then even his worst swing of the day turned into a birdie on the par-5 ninth. The Canadian hooked his tee shot toward the high netting of the driving range. The ball was so close to the knee-high boundary fence that his only hope was to play the shot left-handed. However, the netting that extends upward from the fence is considered a temporary immovable obstructure. Taylor was given a free drop. He hit iron to about 50 yards short of the green leaving a good angle, and he clipped a wedge to 2 feet. “It was a fortunate break,” Taylor said. “Easily could have probably gone under the fence, but to bounce off and get a drop was a break and it was nice to take advantage of it.” Taylor, who won at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am last year, was at 12-under 128. Five players were two shots behind, a group that was decidedly Southern for the second leg of this Hawaii swing — Stewart Cink (63), Webb Simpson (65), Russell Henley (64), Vaughn Taylor (66) and Chris Kirk (65). It doesn’t stop there. Fourteen players were separated by three shots going into the weekend. Attribute that to an ideal day of a blue sky and only a light, tropical breeze on a dry course at Waialae. Taylor played in a group with Keith Mitchell, who also shot a 62. Their better-ball score was 55, with only four holes where neither of them made a birdie. Mitchell also was right around the cut line. Birdies started dropping, and now he’s right in the mix. Ditto for Harris English, who had at least a share of the lead after every round in his playoff victory last week at Kapalua. He opened with a 70 and was in danger of missing the cut. He shot 64 and was six back. “I think it’s probably harder out here to make double (bogey) and there’s a lot of birdie opportunities,” Taylor said. “You can make four, five, six pars in a row and you’re probably getting lapped, especially with how the fairways are running.” Taylor wasn’t even doing that. He was 1 over through 5 holes, slipping behind the cut line. But instead of worrying about the cut, he just kept playing and putting, along with that chip-in for eagle on the 18th. Waialae has never looked so empty without fans, and Taylor wasn’t sure how to react except to eventually high-five his caddie. Sergio Garcia had a moment like that. He holed a flop shot from right of the sixth green and simply stood there. No one was sure where it went until a caddie reached into the cup and tossed the ball to him. But it’s plenty crowded on the scoreboard, and the weekend figures to be as wild as ever. Cink already won the season-opener in the Safeway Open in September, his first victory since the 2009 Open Championship at Turnberry. He and his wife, a cancer survivor, recovered from COVID-19. His 23-year-old took a leave from Delta Airlines to caddie for him. It doesn’t take much to make the 47-year-old smile. And then he played golf beneath a gorgeous blue sky in a light, tropical breeze with gentle surf along the edge of Waialae. “Today was a dream day for playing here at Waialae,” he said. “It was almost no wind. There was a little bit of moisture on the ground from last night, and it was a day where you could really dial it in. You could really hit your spots instead of having to do the usual, which is figure out how wind is going to help or hurt the ball.” The group three shots behind included Kapalua runner-up Joaquin Niemann of Chile, Collin Morikawa and Hideki Matsuyama, who shot 28 on his second nine for a 65. The weather was so good that Simpson was nervous. He was 1 under for his round in conditions where he felt the good scores would be in the 62 range. And then he made a 25-foot birdie putt on the par-3 fourth, closed with three straight birdies and felt a lot better. “It’s one of those days where calm winds, you feel like you need to go shoot 7, 8, 9 under, and I was a couple under for a while there,” he said. “Really happy with my finish and I thought if I can get it to double digits, I would be at least close to the lead going into Saturday.”

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