Fantasy golf advice: One & Done, Sanderson Farms Championship

PGA TOUR Statement on Padraig Harrington: PGA TOUR member Padraig Harrington has withdrawn from the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am after testing positive for COVID-19. Harrington will have the PGA TOUR's full support throughout his self-isolation period under CDC guidelines. First alternate Sangmoon Bae will replace Harrington in the field.

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PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico – There hasn’t been a hotel room named after him yet, but with a big smile, Viktor Hovland said there should be. Hovland has come to the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba as the two-time defending champion. His face is on highway advertisements, pop-up pictures at the airport and splashed around El Camaleón Golf Course. You quite literally cannot miss Hovland this week. And he’s fine with that. “It’s a little bit different, for sure, but I think it’s cool. I definitely feel welcomed when I come back here. It’s a place that means a lot to me,” said Hovland. “It’s the place that I played my first PGA TOUR event, won twice here, have a chance to win it again. Yeah, it’s just a really special place. “To be able to come back and kind of see that I have a place in history at this event is really cool.” Hovland won the 2020 edition of the World Wide Technology Championship with a score of 20 under, topping Aaron Wise by a shot. Last year he shot a tournament-record 23-under and won by four. His elite ball-striking saw him finish first in Greens in Regulation last season at Maykoba, while his putting improved tremendously – he went from T45 in Putts per Round in 2021 to T10 last year. His putting, he said, is something he’s been thrilled to see improve year over year. Hovland admitted he’s “not a big goal setter” in terms of results, but he’s been thrilled with his process efforts so far. He’s aiming to simplify things to have even more success. “I did a really good job the last one or two years to push the ceiling a little bit higher. I feel like I’m a way more impressive player now than I was when I first came out, but I need to, now, bring it back a little to get those shots that are more predictable. It doesn’t have to be flashy, or you don’t have to hit high draws because it looks nice on certain holes,” said Hovland. “I think that’s the main thing for me, because I’ve become a way better putter than I was the first two years (on TOUR) and I really feel like I’ve turned a corner around the greens as well. “I just need to get back to knowing where the ball’s going and it should be fun.” But what is it about Mayakoba, specifically, that fits his eye? Norway is a long way from the northern part of Playa Del Carmen. And funny enough, although the 25-year-old has had some recent success at El Camaleón, it wasn’t always that way. This event marked his PGA TOUR debut in 2018, and he missed the cut. He also missed the cut the following season before winning in back-to-back tries. Hovland’s home club in Oklahoma, Karsten Creek, reminds him a lot of El Camaleón. That helps, he said. There’s a trust there. “At the end of the day I think you’ve got to hit the ball straight, and with my iron play, I can give myself a lot of looks, and these greens are pretty flat and if I start the ball online, you can make a lot of putts,” said Hovland. “Just a great spot for me.” The three-time TOUR winner admitted there was, however, a fine line between confidence and expectation because of his recent success in Mayakoba. He compared it to when he was a sophomore at Oklahoma State and his squad was running through the NCAA schedule that year. It could be added pressure, but it could work to your advantage. “It comes back to if you’re feeling really confident about your game. I think the heightened pressure can kind of help you because it just almost hyper-focuses you to perform that week,” said Hovland. “But if you don’t have the skills to back it up for that week, it can also go the other way to where you’re trying to force things instead of it kind of naturally happening. I think it all depends on where the state of your game is. “I certainly don’t see it as a disadvantage this week.” Hovland’s effort this week in Mexico is the 13th time a golfer has gone for a three-peat since Steve Stricker at the John Deere Classic from 2009 to 2011. Stricker was the last man to win the same event three years running, and only three golfers in the last 40 years on TOUR have been able to pull the feat (Tiger Woods has done it six times, including two four-peats) so Hovland knows he’s in heaty company. Hovland’s playing competitors know how hard it’s going to be for him to win again this week. “You can go through a lot of the good shots you had from the previous year, but at the end of the day you’re still hitting the same shots as everyone else, and you’ve still got to make your putts,” said Collin Morikawa. “But there’s a lot to draw back on, which is always the best thing. When you’re able to draw back on good moments, good memories… it helps a lot. It’s big on your confidence.” Hovland, the back-to-back winner in Mexico, has got plenty of that heading into this year’s edition of the World Wide Technology Championship. And maybe if he’s back in the winner’s circle on Sunday, again, he might get that hotel room named after him after all.

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ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. — Sebastian Munoz saw the tough weather conditions on the way to The RSM Classic and figured all he could do was keep his head down and make birdies. He wound up with a 10-under 60 to shatter his career round by six shots. RELATED: Leaderboard | Jordan Spieth and wife welcome first child Scoring was so low Thursday at Sea Island that all that got Munoz was a one-shot lead. The Colombian, who won his first PGA TOUR event just over two years ago, birdied his final hole at Seaside. He led by one stroke over Sea Island member Zach Johnson at Seaside, while three other players were one shot behind. Past champion Mackenzie Hughes, Chez Reavie and Scott Stallings each had a 9-under 63 on the Plantation course. Four players were tied at 8 under, led by Canadian Corey Conners (62 at Seaside). His wife, Malory, gave birth last week to their first child, a girl named Reis. Jhonattan Vegas, Talor Gooch and Russell Henley shot 64 at Plantation. Scoring was so ideal that 33 players shot 66 or lower on the two courses, located just off the Atlantic Ocean, and all but 21 players in the field of 156 broke par. The cumulative score in relation to par at the Seaside Course was 288 under, 42 shots lower than the previous record set in 2018. The scoring average of 66.308 at the Seaside was a tournament record, and the second-lowest for any round on the PGA TOUR since 1983, when the TOUR began tracking hole-by-hole data. The record is 66.28 at Indian Wells in the 2003 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. Munoz matched Tommy Gainey’s 2012 record for low round at Seaside; Hughes, Stallings and Reavie tied for low round at the Plantation set last year by winner Robert Streb and Bronson Burgoon. A warm, sunny day that began with just enough light rain to soften the already pure greens is expected to morph into more common November weather on the Georgia coast Friday with a drop of about 10 degrees in the temperature and wind forecast to gust as high as 30 mph. “When you’ve got just absolute pure conditions weather-wise and pure conditions on the golf course — the best I’ve ever seen these two golf courses, period — you know you’ve got to get after it,” said the 45-year-old Johnson, who hit all 18 greens. “It was a perfect day and we all knew it (low scores) was out there,” added Cameron Smith, who had a 66 at the Seaside. Munoz, however, was staying in the present for his best round as a professional. He hit 11 fairways and 16 greens, made six birdies on the front nine and punctuated the day with a 12-foot eagle putt at No. 15 and a 10-foot birdie putt at No. 18. “I felt great yesterday playing the pro-am, basically the same weather for two days, so I knew I was hitting it good,” he said. “I just let it happen.” And for tomorrow? “I haven’t really looked at the forecast,” he said. “I don’t know how much it’s going to blow tomorrow or if it’s going to be cold or not, so I’m just kind of here right now and I’ll adjust tomorrow and see what happens.” Johnson was the only player who had a reasonable shot at a sub-60 round. He was 9 under through 15 holes after making a 7-footer for birdie at No. 15 and missed birdie attempts of 10, 20 and 25 feet on the final three holes. “It hit me (the chance to shoot 59) after I birdied 12 and 13 and I got to 8 under,” Johnson said. “Making birdie on 15, I was like, ‘Well, two more and I’m right there.’ I gave myself looks, pretty good looks and that’s all you can hope for.” Johnson also had a shot at 59 in the TOUR Championship in 2007 until hitting into a bunker on the par-3 18th hole at East Lake and having to settle for par and a 60. Johnson and playing partners Matt Kuchar (65) and Joel Dahmen (65) didn’t make a bogey.

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