G-Mac: Rory ‘won himself a lot of fans’

As Joshua Creel finished a five-week stretch on the road with a PGA TOUR card in hand for the first time, all he wanted to do this week was head back home, sleep in his own bed and see his wife and dog. Unfortunately, COVID-19 had other plans. His wife, Alex, was supposed to head to the Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance to watch him play for the weekend but she found out someone in her office had contracted COVID, so she went to get tested before leaving. Positive. Plans spoiled. Not only could she not go to see her husband get a TOUR card, but he also couldn’t return home either when the tournament ended. “I’m in the city I live in, and I can’t even go to my house,” Creel said with a laugh. Initially instead of flying home, Creel flew to Fulton, Mississippi, this week and spent a couple days with his close buddy, Chad Ramey, who is also preparing for his first start as a PGA TOUR member at next week’s Fortinet Championship. After a couple days practicing and hanging out, Creel headed back to Edmond, Oklahoma, and is staying with a buddy this week and practicing at his home club while his wife, who is expecting their first child, a baby boy named Colt in January, quarantines at their home. “I went and talked to her through the front window, but that’s as close as we’ve gotten to each other, so that’s frustrating,” Creel said. “I haven’t slept in my own bed for six weeks, so I was looking forward to that. And it was a pretty big bummer that she wasn’t able to be out there Sunday and celebrate with my parents and myself. So, it’s been frustrating, but it is what it is, so I’ll go to work next week then come back and enjoy her and my dog.” Despite the inconveniences to his preparation this week and the disappointment that his wife can’t head with him to Napa, Creel, who turned pro in 2012, is fired up to have the opportunity to get back to work next week as a TOUR member. “Obviously a dream come true to be teeing it up on the PGA TOUR as a member. I’m excited,” Creel said. “Going to keep doing what we’ve been doing the last couple months and pick good targets, get good numbers and see what happens. But the game feels good. I’ve been playing well now for a while.” As far as momentum goes, Creel has about as much as any TOUR rookie will heading into the TOUR’s season-opener. In mid-June, he was outside the top 100 in the Korn Ferry Tour Points Standings and looking up fall Q-School information. Now, he’s a Korn Ferry Tour winner and heading to the big show after finishing the Korn Ferry Tour Finals with back-to-back top-10s. “I laugh with my friends because it’s been a wild ride, I’ll tell you what,” Creel said. “The emotions from looking into Q-School to locking up a Korn Ferry Tour card for next year to going on and winning and then ultimately getting my PGA TOUR card. It’s been something else, but I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.” It’s the journey to get here that has made it all the sweeter. After leaving Central Oklahoma as the 2012 NCAA Division II Player of the Year, Creel struggled to breakthrough. He finally made it to final stage of Q-School in 2016 for the first time but finished T131, which was only good conditional membership and four starts on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2017. He was playing mini tours mostly and never lost the faith in his game or that he could make it, but his bank account was starting to. “There was one time in 2017 where my dad said, ‘Hey dude, your bank account is running real thin,” Creel recalled. “Just point blank you’re either going to have to play better or find something else to do, and I ended up winning a mini-tour event the next week to give myself a little bit of a cushion. But, yeah, never wanted to quit because I was upset about how I was playing but there were a couple times where financially there it was getting tough.” That period proved critical. He not only improved his course management out on the mini tours, but he learned to win. In 2019, he got fully exempt status on the Korn Ferry Tour for the first time and now the Cheyenne, Wyoming, native will tee it up next week as only the second TOUR member ever from Wyoming. “I’m not one to ever get down about much and I was never really discouraged at all about where my game was or where I was going to have to play over the years,” Creel said. “So, yeah, just steadily improved and parlayed that into a PGA TOUR card.”

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The PGA TOUR returns to Canada this week for the RBC Canadian Open. This year marks the first time since 2019 that the event will be featured on the PGA TOUR schedule, as the pandemic led to cancelations of the event in 2020 and 2021. Rory McIlroy is the last winner of this event when it was held at Hamilton Golf & Country Club in 2019. This week does feature a full field, with more than 150 golfers in the attendance, and will feature a strong top end, with five of the top 10 golfers in the OWGR teeing it up. The event will take place at St. George’s G&CC, a 7,014-yard par 70 that last hosted the event in 2010. Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: $800,000 Pitch + Putt [$200,000 to 1st] With the U.S. Open taking place the week after the RBC Canadian Open, a lot of big names have made the trek up North to get in some competitive practice. Both Justin Thomas ($10,900) and Scottie Scheffler ($11,100), the year’s first two major championship winners, are in the field. Sam Burns ($10,000), winner at another tricky par-70 track (Colonial) two weeks ago, is also making an appearance. As is Cameron Smith ($10,300), who suffered a dismal Sunday last weekend and ended the Memorial Tournament T13. The last time we saw the RBC Canadian Open played, it was on another shorter par-70 track in Hamilton, and that event was won at -22 by Rory McIlroy ($10,500). Given the way some of the top names in the world have performed this year, it wouldn’t be shocking to see another dominate win by one of them on what will be a shorter than normal setup for the pros. STRATEGY Shorter courses tend to put an emphasis on short irons, short games and putting. We should expect the Stanley Thompson-designed St. George’s G&CC to emphasize those specific facets of the game. In 2010, we saw Carl Pettersson take down the event at St. George’s, a player who ranked 137th in driving distance that season. Pettersson also ranked third in strokes gained putting that year and was able to craft a round of 60 on St. George’s in the third round, on his way to the win. The greens at St. George’s are bentgrass and, with rain in the forecast, could be very receptive for 2022. McIlroy ranks first in Strokes Gained: Putting on bentgrass greens over the last 24 rounds. Players who have good track records at short courses and have solid proximity stats with their short irons should also be valued highly this week. Matthias Schwab ($7,300) and Rory Sabbatini ($7,200) both rank inside the top 10 in proximity from 125-150 yards over the last 24 rounds while Smith and David Lipsky ($7,300) both rank inside the top 10 in proximity from 100-125 yards over that same span. Last year, the week before the U.S. Open, we saw Garrick Higgo take down his first PGA TOUR title at the Palmetto Championship, in what was only his second PGA TOUR start. Strange things can happen the week prior to a major, and there’s plenty of interesting names down the field to take a look at this week for our daily fantasy golf lineups. GOLFERS TO CONSIDER Cameron Smith ($10,300) Smith found himself in contention again last week but fell back to T13 after a poor Sunday. He has wins at both Waialae Country Club (Sony Open) and TPC Sawgrass (THE PLAYERS), two shorter tracks on the PGA TOUR where short irons, short games and putting are all magnified. The course this week will be much less demanding off the tee than the venues seen in Smith’s last two starts, and that should allow the rest of his game to shine through. He’s been showcasing an elite approach game of late and ranks first in proximity from 100-125 yards out over the last 24 rounds. Starting DFS lineups with Smith this week on a suitable layout makes complete sense when looking at the top of the board. Corey Conners ($9,600) Conners has typically held himself very well at some of the shorter tracks on the PGA TOUR. He landed a T12 at Hilton Head in April and was also T11 at the aforementioned Waialae Country Club in Hawaii this January. Obviously, the Canadian will be playing in his national open, which will make this week a little more special for him than the rest of the field, so seeing him attack with a little more seriousness wouldn’t be shocking. A wet course with high greens in regulations also wouldn’t be terrible for Conners, as he gained over 8.0 strokes on approach last week at the Memorial and is second in the field in proximity stats over the last 50 rounds. David Lipsky ($7,300) If you’re looking to take a shot with a player lower down the board this week, then perhaps think about looking to Lipsky, who has been playing solid golf of late. The former Korn Ferry Tour and European Tour winner ranks 12th in Strokes Gained: Approach stats over the last 50 rounds and has done well over the last couple of weeks on tougher setups (T37 last week at Muirfield). Lipsky’s strong short-iron game should shine through at St. George’s, and he won’t be as disadvantaged by his lack of distance off the tee. Stephan Jaeger ($7,300) and C.T. Pan ($8,100) are a couple of other potential value targets for DFS this week, as they’ve been trending well on approach and should set up well for this older, more technical venue. Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: $800,000 Pitch + Putt [$200,000 to 1st] Put your knowledge to the test. Sign up for DraftKings and experience the game inside the game. I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and customer (my username is wavegoodbye) and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. 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The look on the players’ face as they walked off the Ocean Course told the story. This PGA Championship won’t be easy. And if you take even a second off, trouble is coming.

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