Fantasy Golf: Sleeper picks for the Arnold Palmer Invitational

PARAMUS, N.J. — Tiger Woods failed to carry any momentum he had from his last tournament into the start of the FedExCup Playoffs. Neither did Sean O’Hair. That was only good news for one of them Thursday in THE NORTHERN TRUST. O’Hair missed the cut last week and saw his FedExCup standing slip to No. 121, meaning he has to play well this week or his season is over. His immediate goal is to advance to the third stage of events because the BMW Championship is at Aronimink outside Philadelphia, where O’Hair is a member. He drilled a 3-wood from 284 yards to 6 feet for eagle on No. 3. He hammered another 3-wood on the par-5 17th to 10 feet, settling for a two-putt birdie. That carried O’Hair to a 5-under 66, giving him a share of the lead with Kevin Tway, Jamie Lovemark and Vaughn Taylor. “I’m obviously very disappointed that I’m not in a better position, but I’m kind of in charge of my destiny,” O’Hair said. “If I play good golf I’m just going to work into the next week.” Woods, playing for the first time since his runner-up finish at the PGA Championship, had a pair of birdies, a pair of bogeys, a lot of pars and a 71. He was five shots behind and in a tie for 60th. After a rough start off the tee, Woods wound up hitting nine of 14 fairways. He just never got it close enough for good looks at birdie. “Just didn’t have the situations where I had the full club and I could go ahead and take a rip at it and start being aggressive and going after these flags,” Woods said. “I kept having to play a little defensive because I was taking more club, trying to shape it and take spin off. One of those days.” Woods is back in the FedExCup Playoffs for the first time in five years, and it was his first time at Ridgewood Country Club since 2010. Thousands came to watch him play, and they heard plenty of cheers from the group behind him. Dustin Johnson rimmed out a 6-iron on the par-3 sixth for one of his seven birdies to offset a triple bogey for a 67. U.S. Open and PGA champion Brooks Koepka ran off four birdies and an eagle for his 67. FedExCup champion Justin Thomas had four birdies in his round of 69. Johnson could tell his 6-iron was close to perfect from the flight of the shot, where it landed and the reaction of the fans behind the par-3 sixth green as the ball rolled around left edge of the cup. Or were they cheering because Woods teed off on the hole ahead of them? “I was kind of debating whether they were yelling for me or him,” Johnson said with a smile. O’Hair isn’t alone in the urgency to play well. The top 100 advance to the second stage next week at the TPC Boston, with the top 70 going to the BMW Championship and the top 30 making it to East Lake in Atlanta for the TOUR Championship. Tway and Lovemark are in the mid-80s in the FedExCup, while Taylor is at No. 112. Tway began his week playing in a charity event with good friend Morgan Hoffmann, who is coping with muscular dystrophy. Hoffmann is a reminder of how far players can go with the FedExCup points quadrupled in the playoffs. “Morgan Hoffmann came in at 124 and went all the way to The TOUR Championship,” Tway said, referring to 2014. “That’s kind of the plan, try to play as good as you can and go as far as you can.” Johnson had no idea where his tee shots were going until late in his round, yet he still managed to pile up birdies. One wild drive cost him at the 17th, where the ball went so far left it wasn’t even worth searching for in the woods. Johnson made triple bogey. “I hit that ball 70 yards left of where I was looking,” he said. “If I’m trying to hit a high cut, if anything I’m going to over- cut it to the right. And it came off low and hooked. So I just laughed. Wasn’t funny when I made triple, though.”  O’Hair doesn’t sound like he’s playing under a lot of pressure. He had knee surgery last year that kept him from most of the fall events, putting him behind. He decided to keep playing until he had his card locked up, and then he was runner-up at the Valero Texas Open. “After that, I kind of just checked out mentally because I knew I was safe and kind of lost my drive a little bit,” he said. He took off the month of June, which he had never done, and hasn’t played very well since then. But he’s back to work, first on his long game and late on his putter, and he found the right formula on a rain-softened course at Ridgewood. It was a good start, nothing more. And while he would love to play on his home course in two weeks at Aronimink, he’s not obsessed with it. O’Hair said he came into the Playoffs with one eye toward next year. “It’s not like, `Hey, I need to do this to play Aronimink,'” O’Hair said. “I’ll play Aronimink after the tournament. I think I’ve got a member-guest the following week.”

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AUGUSTA, Ga. – No one had ever come from nine-shots back. No one had ever shot 63 at Augusta National on a Sunday. But Jordan Spieth made us all believe anything was possible with an incredible surge that lit up the course and energized the patrons at the Masters. With nine birdies through his opening 16 holes the 2015 Masters champion found himself atop the leaderboard – and the unlikely challenger to Patrick Reed’s quest for the Green Jacket. It was sublime stuff. Back-to-back birdies to open the round. Another on the tough fifth hole. And two more to close out a front nine 31. Surely he couldn’t keep it up. Mid-range birdie tries on 10 and 11 went close but didn’t go down and then it was time to head to the 12th tee. The infamous Golden Bell. The par-3 over Rae’s creek where Spieth had drowned away his chance at the 2016 title and revisited last year. This time he took aim and safely found the back fringe. In one of the moments of the tournament he raised his hands in triumph and proceeded to high five the patrons nearby. They repaid him with an almighty roar soon after when he drained a birdie from 27 feet. “What we did on 12 today was really cool,â€� Spieth admitted. “To play a disciplined shot, probably the most pressure‑packed shot I’ve ever hit, again, I had no idea where I stood, but still the Sunday pin at Augusta and I know what I’ve done, and my history there, to stand in that kind of pressure and hit the shot to the safe zone to knock that putt in was massive for me going forward.â€� The drama wasn’t over. His drive on the par-5 13th nestled into the pine straw 234-yards from the pin. It was decision time. Go for it? Yes. Stock 4-iron or fade a hybrid? Caddie Michael Greller says hybrid fits the hole better and gives more margin for error. When Spieth returned the iron and pulled the head cover off his hybrid he had to quieten the nearby cheers. He then hit it to 12 feet. If only the eagle would have dropped. But the birdie did. Another went in on 15. By the time he lined up a 33-foot birdie try on the 16th hole he had the attention of everyone on the course who were looking at leaderboards. Roars came from the 18th hole every time a new number went up. But the man himself says he had no idea where he stood. He refused to look at the famous big boards around Augusta National. “The first time I saw the leaderboard was after I tapped in on 18. Honest to God. Didn’t look once today,â€� he said. “That was my plan going in. I’m nine back. Go out and just have fun. Don’t worry about the golf tournament itself, worry about playing Augusta National.â€� When the ball disappeared into the cup at 16 he was on top. Even Spieth couldn’t believe how well he was playing. “Are you kidding me?â€� he said to Greller. Were we witnessing the greatest final round in major history? It certainly felt possible. Two holes left. Two birdies for a never been done before major 61. One birdie to break the Masters record and join Branden Grace’s major record 62. Two pars to tie the Masters record 63 but be the first to do it on Sunday. An 18-foot effort on 17 heartbreakingly burned the edge. The dream remained alive though. Plenty have birdied 18 on Sunday before. And then… it happened. Trying to produce a cut through the infamous chute off the 18th tee Spieth clipped a branch of a tree and his ball did what is usually only reserved for weekend hackers – it dropped straight down having not even made the start of the fairway. He still had 267 yards to go. Uphill. The Texan was “guttedâ€� but rebounded to give himself an 8-foot look at par. When it slid past he signed for an 8-under 64 to post at 13 under. Ultimately it would finish two shots back of Reed in third place. “I heard roars,â€� Spieth said when prodded about his claim to not know where he stood. “I knew somebody was playing well. With eight people ahead of me starting the day, to get that much help and shoot a fantastic round was nearly impossible. “But I almost pulled off the impossible. I had no idea. When I finished and I looked at the board I could have been in the lead by two and I could have been down four. And neither one would have surprised me.â€� It did surprise Reed. Sunday was supposed to be a showdown between him and Rory McIlroy. But McIlroy didn’t deliver. Instead Spieth charged first, and Fowler charged late. “I knew somebody was going to make a run at me… I knew someone else was going to go post a number early. Did I think they were going to post that type of number? No,â€� Reed said. “Every time I looked at a board, they always threw up a number and it seemed to always get closer and closer to me; it was kind of nerve‑wracking. I was kind of glad he ran out of holes.â€� Spieth has now finished T2-1-T2-T11-3 in his five Masters appearances. He was T3 in his last start prior at the Houston Open despite suffering from some putting woes this season. “I look back, and, man, I did everything right,â€� Spieth added. “From where I was two or three weeks ago to now has been probably the most successful couple of weeks I’ve ever had in my career. “In general, this round was fantastic. I mean nobody’s going to have a great Sunday every year at Augusta National. To be able to have a chance to win this Tournament five years in a row is really, really cool. And that’s how I’m going to take today.â€�

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