Five Things to Know: Ricardo Gouveia

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Altogether now, “Thank you.” That’s a message of appreciation from season-long fantasy commissioners and gamers to the powerbrokers of the PGA TOUR for eliminating the wraparound component following the 2022-23 season. Bemoan no more! The tight squeeze of the official offseason will be no more.. FULL-MEMBERSHIP RANKINGS: Intro | 1-50 | 51-100 | 101-150 | 151-200 | 201-214 | Cheat sheet No, easing our lives wasn’t among the influences, but who cares. We still can and will capitalize on the return to the calendar-year season in 2024. It was among a cavalcade of changes announced in June. Those that affect our business are included in this opening page to my annual full-membership fantasy ranking. With the biggest news in 10 years out of the way, welcome! To many, welcome back! It’s states “ranking” throughout these pages, but it’s also a guide, so bookmark or save it. It’s designed to be evergreen – I will not be updating it – and as your resource for things big and small. Read through this page before diving into the golfers. The through line is the context, and it’s all connected. When you get to the golfers, be advised that those included are eligible for PGA TOUR competition and are positioned somewhere in the Priority Ranking through the Non-exempt Medical Extension category. Overall ranking is based on projected value for the entirety of the 2022-23 season. As always, adjust accordingly for your format, opposition and everything else contributing to how your league measures your performance over time. For draft leaguers who prefer to see everything on one page, the Cheat Sheet lists all golfers by ranking, name and age. It’s also printable, so you can glance at a physical copy while scrolling or swiping on your PC, tablet or mobile device. The 2022-23 PGA TOUR season essentially is identical to the season that just concluded. There are 47 tournaments, the last three of which comprising the FedExCup Playoffs. Also familiarly, the top 125 at the conclusion of the Wyndham Championship will be fully exempt for the 2024 season, but for the first time in the 17-year history of the Playoffs, only the top 70 will qualify. The top 50 after the first leg will advance to the second. Then, per tradition, the top 30 after that will qualify for the season-ending TOUR Championship. Most impactful on us, and particularly salary gamers, is the introduction of Elevated Events. As of the publish date of this ranking, eight of the 12 are determined. Of them, purses currently range from $15 million at the Sentry Tournament of Champions through $25 million at THE PLAYERS Championship. Top players are committed to competing against each other in all Elevated Events, and they also will total at least 20 starts for the season. A minimum schedule of the other eight would consist of THE PLAYERS, all four majors and three events of the players’ choosing. All of the golfers ranked include ages, 2021-22 earnings (i.e. salary) and levels of status on the PGA TOUR. An asterisk beside a salary value indicates that a golfer is a bargain. With prize money escalating, there are more than usual this season. Regardless of status, if a golfer earned $0 last season, he’s annotated with “–“ and no asterisk. Salaries for golfers who were non-members in 2021-22 are determined by the total of official money and earnings at the WGC-Match Play. For all golfers not included in this ranking, refer to the “TOTAL MONEY” column in “NON-MEMBER OFF+WGC EARNINGS” as your reference to determine salary. (They are separated on the page in the event that a non-member wins a WGC, so that provisional disclaimer is irrelevant for your objective.) Because of the introduction of the Elevated Events, qualification into those tournaments may be modified, but for our purposes, use the following traditional breakdown to project entry. STATUS … BERTHS • Top 125 in 2021-22 FedExCup Eligibility Points = Entry into every open and the following invitationals: The American Express, The Genesis Invitational, THE PLAYERS, RBC Heritage. • Top 80 = Top 125 exemptions plus entry into the Charles Schwab Challenge. • Top 70 = Top 80 exemptions plus entry into the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard and Memorial Tournament presented by Workday. • Top 60 = Top 70 exemptions plus entry into the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP and THE CJ CUP in South Carolina (both of which have made room for the top 60 available). • Top 30 = Exemptions into every tournament before the Playoffs except the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play and the PGA Championship. (These golfers now are exempt into the Sentry Tournament of Champions. Their membership exemptions also are extended through the 2024 season if they aren’t already.) Other levels of status are as follows: • Multi-year = Winners prior to 2021-22 who didn’t qualify for the 2022 Playoffs but still have fully exempt status. • Medical Extensions = Terms to fulfill are noted. (Golfers on Major Medicals would retain status in the Priority Ranking for the remainder of the season. Golfers with other medicals would be promoted to the Major Medical category for the remainder.). • Conditional = Nos. 126-150 in 2021-22 FedExCup Eligibility Points. • KFT = Korn Ferry Tour graduates – regular season (25 golfers). • KFT Finals = KFT Finals graduates (25 golfers). • OWGR Top 50 = Thomas Pieters and Ryan Fox (only two non-members inside the top 50 of the most recent Official World Golf Ranking who are eligible for PGA TOUR competition). There are 28 rookies to open the season. They are noted accordingly. Justin Suh and MJ Daffue also are first-time PGA TOUR members (via the KFT regular season), but each exhausted his rookie eligibility in a prior season. Life Members over the age of 50 are not included. Also excluded is 2022 PGA Professional Championship winner Jesse Mueller, who is allowed six somewhat restricted starts. For non-members eligible for PGA TOUR competition in 2022-23, the target to achieve Special Temporary Membership is 175.228 FedExCup points. That equals what Dylan Wu totaled as the 150th-ranked golfer via FedExCup Eligibility Points in 2021-22. It’s the lowest threshold in memory, so it stands to reason that it will be threatened if not crossed multiple times. Once it is, gaining access to the PGA TOUR in 2024 eases. (For a detailed explanation of STM, click here.) In addition, the top 10, not otherwise fully exempt on the PGA TOUR in 2024, at the season-ending DP World Tour ranking in 2023 will be extended PGA TOUR membership in 2024. Altogether, leagues that allow drop-adds and/or keepers will have a stockpile of additional talent lined up for the future. Now, changes are not limited only to the PGA TOUR, membership and everything else broken down above. There are two significant enhancements to PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf as well. First, pars now will reward one point instead of zero. Therefore, cuts made returns as an influencer in building rosters and managing starts across Segments. Second, the dedicated fantasy app has been discontinued. Access to PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf via your mobile device has been simplified to the PGA TOUR app and via mobile browsing. The desktop version, FantasyGolf.PGATOUR.com, also remains unchanged. PGA TOUR Pick ‘Em Live will continue as well. Mike Glasscott and I will continue to collaborate for Pick ‘Em Preview every Wednesday. If you ever have any questions and comments, please connect with me on Twitter. My handle is beside my byline at the top. Glass also makes himself available on the platform. Have fun, listen and learn, and remain fluid. In fantasy, in reality.

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KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. — Phil Mickelson has delivered so many thrills and spills over 30 years of pure theater that no one ever knows what he will do next. RELATED: Ben Cook wins low club professional at PGA Championship | Final leaderboard His latest act was a real stunner: A major champion at age 50. Mickelson captured his sixth major and by far the most surprising Sunday at the PGA Championship. He made two early birdies with that magical wedge game and let a cast of contenders fall too far behind to catch him in the shifting wind of Kiawah Island. He closed with a 1-over 73, building a five-shot lead on the back nine and not making any critical mistakes that kept him from his place in history. Julius Boros for 53 years held the distinction of golf’s oldest major champion. He was 48 when he won the 1968 PGA Championship in San Antonio. Pure chaos broke out along the 18th hole after Mickelson hit 9-iron safely to just outside 15 feet that all but secured a most improbable victory. Thousands of fans engulfed him down the fairway — a scene typically seen only at the Open Championship — until Mickelson emerged into view with a thumbs-up. Chants of “Lefty! Lefty! Lefty!” chased him onto the green and into the scoring tent, his final duty of a week he won’t soon forget. Three months after 43-year-old Tom Brady won a seventh Super Bowl, Mickelson added to this year of ageless wonders. Mickelson became the first player in PGA TOUR history to win tournaments 30 years apart. The first of his 45 titles was in 1991 when he was still a junior at Arizona State. Mickelson became the 10th player to win majors in three decades, an elite list that starts with Harry Vardon and was most recently achieved by Tiger Woods. “He’s been on TOUR as long as I’ve been alive,” Jon Rahm said. “For him to keep that willingness to play and compete and practice, it’s truly admirable.” Brooks Koepka and Louis Oosthuizen had their chances, but only briefly. Koepka was 4 over on the par 5s when the game was still on and closed with a 74. Oosthuizen hit into the water as he was trying to make a final run and shot 73. Mickelson finished at 6-under 282. The victory came one week after Mickelson accepted a special exemption into the U.S. Open because at No. 115 in the world and winless the last two years, he no longer was exempt from qualifying. He had not finished in the top 20 in his last 17 tournaments over nearly nine months. He worried that he was no longer able to keep his focus over 18 holes. The PGA Championship had the largest and loudest crowd since the return from the COVID-19 pandemic — the PGA of America said it limited tickets to 10,000 — and it was clear what they wanted to see. The opening hour made it seem as though the final day could belong to anyone. The wind finished its switch to the opposite direction from the opening rounds, and while there was low scoring early, Mickelson and Koepka traded brilliance and blunder. Koepka flew the green with a wedge on the par-5 second hole, could only chip it about 6 feet to get out of an impossible lie and made double bogey, a three-shot swing when Mickelson hit a deft pitch from thick grass behind the green. Mickelson holed a sand shot from short of the green on the par-5 third, only for Koepka to tie for the lead with a two-shot swing on the sixth hole when he made birdie and Lefty missed the green well to the right. Kevin Streelman briefly had a share of the lead. Louis Oosthuizen was lurking, even though it took him seven holes to make a birdie. And then the potential for any drama was sucked out to sea. Oosthuizen, coming off a birdie to get within three, had to lay up out of the thick grass on the 13th and then sent his third shot right of the flag and into the water, making double bogey. Just like that, Mickelson was up by five and headed toward the inward holes, the wind at his back on the way home with what seemed like the entire state of South Carolina at his side.

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