Fantasy golf advice: One & Done, Wells Fargo Championship

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When Davis Love III was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame last year, he came ready with props. The wooden driver he used in his first U.S. Open in 1998. The metal one his son Dru had in the bag when he made his Open debut earlier that summer with Love caddying. The crystal vase his father won for leading the first round of the Masters the year Love was born and the identical one he received for doing the same in 1995. And a turkey call. But not just any turkey call. This one was made by Neil Cost, who Love called the “Tiger Woods of hand-carved turkey call makersâ€� during his induction speech. As accomplished a golfer as Love is, as consummate a professional, he is equally invested in the things he loves doing outside the ropes. Cooking barbecue, for one. Snowboarding in the winter. Hunting deer and catching tarpon and red fish. Turkey hunting is his favorite, though. “Everybody always asks me, if you had to pick one thing, what would you pick? And I said, well, can I pick per season?â€� Love says. “But honestly if I had to pick one thing, it would probably be spring turkey hunting. I just like turkey hunting. It’s the most challenging, entertaining thing.â€� Unfortunately, the season, which generally runs from March until mid-May, conflicts with some of Love’s favorite golf tournaments. Tournaments like THE PLAYERS Championship, the PGA TOUR’s showcase event that he was won twice, and the Masters, the major championship he always seemed destined to win. But Love, who turns 54 on Friday, makes time whenever he can. The hunt starts early in the morning, about a half hour before the sun even comes up. The sounds as the forest comes to life are mesmerizing to Love. “That’s the best thing, you go out there, it’s dark and … then you hear a few birds starting to wake up and an owl hoots and the turkey gobbles and the birds get going and the crows get raucous and the turkeys gobble at the crows,â€� Love says, a smile crossing his face. The turkeys have spent the night in the trees. You didn’t know that? Well, you’re not alone, and Love was patient as he explained what he calls the “chess matchâ€� of hunting them. “Turkey hunting is one of those sports like fly fishing that people don’t casually do it,â€� Love says. “It’s like you have to be kind of all in. There are a lot of intricacies to it. “Calling turkeys is probably one of the most challenging things to learn in hunting.â€� Love has a collection of turkey calls, so many he joked that night in New York City, that his wife Robin would probably like them all to go to the Hall of Fame to “keep Dru and I from making racket in our house.â€� While he says many people just go to their local outdoors shop, he has some real keepsakes like that one by Cost. “Having one handmade or you make them or historical stuff is a whole‘’nother little world,â€� Love says. The calls are as varied as the clubs in Love’s golf bag. Yelps, cackles, clucks, gubles, kee-kees and even purrs emit from diaphragm, slate and box calls, each one designed with to elicit specific responses from the turkey. And then the games begin. “The gobblers gobble to assemble hens and you’re calling hens and trying to get him to come out of his way for you to get close enough to see him or shoot him,â€� Love explains. “And so there’s, there’s a lot of back and forth. You’re not just sitting in a tree waiting for a deer to walk by. There’s a lot of back and forth and a lot of strategy. You kind of know what they want to do during the day and you kind of have to get ahead of them or in front of them.â€� Love remembers the first time he took his daughter Lexie turkey hunting when she was a kid. She, too, was amazed by the cacophony of sounds she heard on that serene spring day. “I took her out there and the owls just let off and they were just going bananas, and she’s like are those monkeys?â€� Love says. “I said, no, we don’t have any monkeys in Georgia. But you don’t hear that. “People just don’t hear those sounds unless you go down in the swamp in the spring. You can’t imagine turkeys talking. Even if you’re a deer hunter, sometimes you don’t, you just really don’t hear that because you’re not out there in the spring.â€� A wild turkey, which grows up eating nuts, berries and insects, is more muscular and lean than his domestic cousin. His legs are powerful and he can reach speeds of up to 25 mph. The meat is predominately dark and has a more intense, gamey flavor. “It’s free range. Organic,â€� Love says. “We hunt and we always say if we’re shooting something we’re eating it. We’re not just shooting something just to shoot it. “But they’re not that good, they’re tough and chewy. Like your yard rooster, he’s not quite as good as the Sanderson Farms chicken that you get at the grocery store. “Nobody’s serving a wild turkey really for Thanksgiving. They’re serving the ones from Mr. Sanderson’s farm.â€�

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Welcome to this week's edition of Numbers to Know, where we will take a closer at Jim Herman's victory at the Wyndham Championship. It was Herman's third PGA TOUR victory, moving him closer to pitcher Sandy Koufax on the list of all-time great athletic alumni from the University of Cincinnati. Let's get started. 1. FAST AND FURIOUS: Herman shot 61-63 on the weekend, tying the PGA TOUR record for lowest final 36 holes by a winner. Stuart Appleby also shot 65-59 in the final two rounds of his victory at the 2010 The Greenbrier Classic. Herman had the lowest weekend score at the Wyndham by two shots. Zach Johnson, who shot 126 in the final two rounds, was the only player within three shots of Herman over the final two rounds at Sedgefield. Herman missed just two fairways and four greens over the final two rounds. He led the field in greens hit (63 of 72) and was fourth in driving accuracy (46 of 56). 2. EAGLE HAS LANDED: Herman led the field with three eagles last week. That included a 131-yard hole-out on the par-4 ninth Thursday and two putts made on the par-5 fifth hole: a 25-footer in the second round and a 59-footer Sunday. Herman has two of the four longest holed shots for eagle by a winner this season, including the longest holed shot for eagle by a winner on a par-4 and par-5 this season. 3. MAKING THE MOST OF IT: Herman has two top-25 finishes in the past two seasons. They're both victories. Talk about making the most of your opportunities. He has missed two-thirds of his cuts over that span, including 11 of 18 this season entering the Wyndham Championship. In the past 10 years, only two players have had multiple seasons where they won while also missing more than half their cuts. Herman is one, performing the feat in each of the past two seasons. Scott Stallings is the other. He did it three times, winning in 2011, 2012 and 2014 while also missing more than half his cuts in each of those campaigns. 4. TEN TO ONE: Here's more proof that Herman makes the most of the times he is in contention. Herman has 10 top-10s in 195 PGA TOUR starts. Of course, three of them are victories. Since 1983, only one player with at least three PGA TOUR wins and 100 starts has a higher percentage of his top-10s that are wins. His name is Tiger Woods. The below chart shows players who didn't contend often but were able to win when they did. And it also is another example of Tiger Woods' incredible career. 2. MAKING A MOVE: The Wyndham Championship has been the PGA TOUR's regular-season finale since the FedExCup began in 2007. Herman entered last week ranked 192nd in the FedExCup, making him the lowest-ranked player to win the Wyndham in the FedExCup era.

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