Haney response to Tiger’s critique: #glasshouses

LAS VEGAS — Mito Pereira of Chile led a parade of players from the International Team at the Presidents Cup in the Shriners Children’s Open on Friday, making birdie on half of his holes for an 8-under 63 that gave him a one-shot lead. Pereira took care of the par 5s at the TPC Summerlin and putted for birdie on every hole except the par-4 12th, where he had to save par from a bunker left of the green. His one lapse was on the seventh hole toward the end of his round when he ran a 20-foot birdie putt some 6 feet by the cup and three-putted for bogey. Pereira was at 12-under 130, one shot ahead of Robby Shelton, who birdied the par-5 ninth on his final hole for a 63. Right behind were 20-year-old Tom Kim and Si Woo Kim, top performers for the International Team in their own right two weeks ago at Quail Hollow. Another shot back was Cam Davis of Australia, who also had a solid debut in the Presidents Cup. Perhaps it was no accident. The International Team was outmanned and yet they gave the mighty Americans a brief scare on the final day before another U.S. Team victory. Pereira said it was a case of captain Trevor Immelman reminding them each night they were great players who could win. “I think Trevor did a really good job with us, encouraging us how good we are, how good we play golf,” Pereira said. “So I think we carry that over here. Right now we’re just playing really good.” Also in the mix were two other International Team players, Christiaan Bezuidenhout and defending champion Sungjae Im, who were five behind. One of the American stars isn’t faring too badly. Patrick Cantlay continued to give himself great looks at birdie, no small task on a TPC Summerlin course that was renovated with new grass on the fairways and greens. That takes time to settle, meaning the greens are hard and it’s tough to get it close. Cantlay had to settle for another 67, leaving him in the group four behind. Cantlay, the No. 4 player in the world with two wins this year, has a victory and two runner-up finishes in his four appearances at the TPC Summerlin. Asked if he was freaked out making a bogey given the good scoring, Cantlay replied, “I don’t get freaked out by much.” Pereira is riding high from his confidence gained at the Presidents Cup. Further in his mind is May, when the Chilean was on the cusp of winning the PGA Championship. He had a one-shot lead playing the 18th at Southern Hills when he drove into a stream, missed the green and made double bogey to miss the playoff by one shot. It was a crushing loss, though it got him into the top 50 for the other majors and led to him playing in the Presidents Cup. He still thinks about it from time to time, “but it’s just way over there in the past.” “I’m just trying to get my first win here,” he said. Si Woo Kim had the best and worst of the back nine at Summerlin. He chipped from the back of the green on the par-4 12th into the water on his way to a triple bogey. On the reachable par-4 15th, he holed a bunker shot for eagle. It added up to a 68, and he’s a big part of the picture on the weekend. So is Tom Kim, who won two months ago for his first PGA TOUR victory. He had a 67 despite not making birdie on any of the par 5s and going through the scorable stretch on the back with nothing better than par. “I just got really mellow,” Tom Kim said. “I just didn’t make any birdies and closed out with 10 pars in a row. It was pretty boring after nine, but I hung in there and I kept myself in it. I think that was the biggest thing.”

Click here to read the full article…

Pick any year and Sergio Garcia is an automatic call at THE PLAYERS where he’s a former champion and the tournament’s all-time earnings leader. However, when he poured in the putt in the playoff to win the Masters, it was immediately fair to ponder if you’d be picking up the phone this week at TPC Sawgrass. One & Doners are famously – infamously? – prone to overthink and overreact with the first ripple or success or failure. At times, it’s absolutely warranted, but this isn’t one of those times. The Spaniard checks all of the boxes. Possibly overlooked in the accomplishment of his coronation in a major is that it was also the culmination of phenomenal form going back to as long as you’d like. With that victory, you can’t argue that he’s in the best form of his life. And then there’s the obvious fact that he’s not an upstart in whom we might expect regression. The Masters also wasn’t last week. It was a month ago. He celebrated, basked and separated. In the process, he was able to turn the page normally. A man in complete control. Within the context of our game, THE PLAYERS is also the most likely event at which we’re comfortable burning Garcia, well, it and The Open Championship. This is due in part to his success in both events, but equally so as defense to the crapshoot that often unravels in each. The risk managers among you might say that we’re OK in losing Garcia in a tournament where he’s most likely to prosper. Among the other short-listers in Future Possibilities below, Martin Kaymer and Francesco Molinari capture my attention the most. I’ve already burned both, so even though I’m settling with a push with our league leader, my decision to plug in Garcia was as easy as it gets. However, with no other attractive sites at which to consider the other two internationals, both have my blessing this week. Justin Thomas and Lee Westwood are the other two without a no-brainer kind of joint to line up later. Thomas’ limited expectations are in direct correlation to his limited experience. He’s in just his third season with a PGA TOUR card. Meanwhile, the veteran Englishman is a non-member well into the back half of his career. As a result, he presents perfectly as a secondary pick in a two-man game. If you’re in a two-man format and can’t or choose not to manufacture a team consisting of any of the aforementioned, also consider Jason Dufner, Kyle Stanley and Graham DeLaet, all of whom are among my Sleepers. Rory McIlroy’s signing with TaylorMade is worth pause in every fantasy format, but One & Doners were unaffected. While he’s atop my Power Rankings, the risk of burning him at TPC Sawgrass isn’t worth it even though the tournament distributes FedExCup points equivalent to every major. There’s also the obvious factor that he’s the kind of juggernaut who is worth reserving for the Playoffs when points are quadrupled. (I’m reserving McIlroy for the Dell Technologies Championship.) FUTURE POSSIBILITIES NOTE: Select golfers committed to the tournament are listed alphabetically. Future tournaments are sorted chronologically and reflect previous success on the courses on which the tournaments will be held in 2016-17. All are pending golfer commitment. Daniel Berger … St. Jude (defending) Jason Bohn … Greenbrier Keegan Bradley … Byron Nelson; Memorial; WGC-Bridgestone; Dell Technologies Paul Casey … Travelers; WGC-Bridgestone; TOUR Championship Kevin Chappell … Dell Technologies Jason Day … PLAYERS (defending); U.S. Open; Canadian; WGC-Bridgestone; PGA Championship; Dell Technologies; TOUR Championship Luke Donald … Wyndham; TOUR Championship Jason Dufner … Byron Nelson; DEAN & DELUCA; U.S. Open; TOUR Championship Harris English … DEAN & DELUCA Jim Furyk … Memorial; U.S. Open; Canadian; WGC-Bridgestone; TOUR Championship Sergio Garcia … PLAYERS; Byron Nelson (defending); Open Championship; TOUR Championship Branden Grace … U.S. Open; WGC-Bridgestone; PGA Championship Bill Haas … Wyndham Charley Hoffman … Byron Nelson; DEAN & DELUCA; Travelers; Canadian Billy Horschel … St. Jude; TOUR Championship Dustin Johnson … Byron Nelson; Memorial; St. Jude; U.S. Open (defending); Canadian; TOUR Championship Zach Johnson … PLAYERS; DEAN & DELUCA; John Deere; Open Championship; WGC-Bridgestone; TOUR Championship Martin Kaymer … PLAYERS Chris Kirk … DEAN & DELUCA Kevin Kisner … PLAYERS; DEAN & DELUCA; Wyndham Russell Knox … Travelers (defending); Dell Technologies Brooks Koepka … Byron Nelson; St. Jude; U.S. Open; PGA Championship Matt Kuchar … PLAYERS; Byron Nelson; DEAN & DELUCA; Memorial; Canadian; WGC-Bridgestone Martin Laird … Barracuda Marc Leishman … DEAN & DELUCA; Memorial; Travelers; Open Championship Hideki Matsuyama … PLAYERS; Memorial; PGA Championship; BMW Graeme McDowell … Open Championship; WGC-Bridgestone; Wyndham William McGirt … Memorial (defending); Wyndham Rory McIlroy … PLAYERS; Memorial; WGC-Bridgestone; PGA Championship; Dell Technologies (defending); TOUR Championship (defending) Phil Mickelson … St. Jude; Open Championship; PGA Championship Francesco Molinari … PLAYERS Ryan Moore … Travelers; John Deere (defending); TOUR Championship Kevin Na … Memorial; John Deere; Wyndham Louis Oosthuizen … Dell Technologies Ryan Palmer … Byron Nelson; DEAN & DELUCA; St. Jude Scott Piercy … John Deere; BMW Ian Poulter … Arnold Palmer; Puerto Rico Patrick Reed … Wyndham; Dell Technologies Justin Rose … PLAYERS; Memorial; Open Championship; WGC-Bridgestone; PGA Championship; TOUR Championship Charl Schwartzel … Memorial; U.S. Open; Open Championship; WGC-Bridgestone Adam Scott … Memorial; U.S. Open; Open Championship; WGC-Bridgestone; Dell Technologies; TOUR Championship Webb Simpson … Greenbrier; Wyndham Jordan Spieth … DEAN & DELUCA (defending); John Deere; WGC-Bridgestone; PGA Championship; TOUR Championship Brendan Steele … Travelers; Barracuda (already eligible for concurrent WGC-Bridgestone) Henrik Stenson … Open Championship (defending); WGC-Bridgestone; PGA Championship; Dell Technologies; TOUR Championship Kevin Streelman … Memorial Justin Thomas … PLAYERS David Toms … PLAYERS; DEAN & DELUCA; Barbasol; Barracuda Jimmy Walker … Greenbrier; PGA Championship (defending); Dell Technologies Bubba Watson … Travelers; Greenbrier; WGC-Bridgestone; TOUR Championship Boo Weekley … St. Jude; Barbasol Lee Westwood … PLAYERS Gary Woodland … Byron Nelson; Barracuda; PGA Championship; Dell Technologies; TOUR Championship

Click here to read the full article…

There were eight tournaments, and eight winners, from the East Coast to the West Coast to Asia. The best golfers in the world played it safe (Safeway Open) and gambled (Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas). They were hot (CIMB Classic) and cold (The RSM Classic). They won it on the greens (Cameron Champ), the tees (Champ), or both at the same time (Champ). What did it all mean? Here are five takeaways from those eight events. 1. It’s (still) not how you start … Charles Howell III went 3 over for the first four holes but 6 under for the final 14 in capturing The RSM Classic on Sunday. He was the latest fall winner to finish with a flourish. Kevin Tway was four behind playing partner Brandt Snedeker at the turn, reeled off five straight birdies — including three in a sudden-death playoff — and won the Safeway Open. He tied two others for the best score to par, 8 under for the week, on holes 16-18. Bryson DeChambeau played the front nine in just 6 under for the week, but the back in 15 under in winning the Shriners, a continuation of his great play in the FedExCup Playoffs. Brooks Koepka shot a back-nine 29 in the final round to win THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES, then explained, “I’m not somebody that’s going to panic if things go the wrong way, pretty sure everybody can tell that. I just kind of hang in there, wait for my holes, I know I’m going to have some good looks and when I do, you’ve got to capitalize on them.â€� Yep, hitting the back-nine afterburners was kind of a thing in the fall. 2. You could almost measure Strokes Gained: Patience Howell, 39, broke a win drought that went back 333 starts, all the way to the 2007 Genesis Open at Riviera. And he did it one week after Matt Kuchar, 40, broke his own win drought of 116 starts dating back to the 2014 RBC Heritage. When he won for the first time in his 91st start, Tway, 30, made himself and his mostly retired father, Bob, the 10th father-son duo to win on TOUR. Marc Leishman didn’t win last season, but wasted no time in capturing the CIMB Classic, by five, in just the second tournament of the new season. Another example of the power of patience: Leishman said he was hitting the ball everywhere early in the week but found something on the driving range and used it to shoot 26 under, tying the tournament record at TPC Kuala Lumpur. 3. Champ lived up to his name The owner of perhaps the coolest golf moniker since Tiger Woods, Cameron Champ lived up to his surname. Befitting a guy who easily led the Web.com Tour in driving distance, he dominated with his long game in winning the Sanderson Farms Championship in just his ninth TOUR start. Or did he dominate with his short game? Although it’s true that Champ, 23, ranked second for the week in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee at the Sanderson, and led the field with eight drives of 340 yards or longer, he was also second in Stroke Gained: Putting, making over 114 feet of putts in the final round alone. Champ became just the 22nd winner on TOUR since the 2004 introduction of ShotLink lasers to rank in the top two in both categories. Two additional top-10s in the fall tied him for the TOUR lead with Scott Piercy and Gary Woodland, and his 117 birdies were the most of anyone over the first eight tournaments and the most ever for the fall portion of the wraparound season. 4. Koepka, DeChambeau validated Although the fall and the 2018 calendar year in general gave us more than the usual number of comeback stories (see above), Koepka validated his PGA TOUR Player of the Year season with a final-round 64 and a four-shot victory over Woodland at THE CJ CUP. Koepka fans had had to wait only a little over two months since his win at the PGA Championship at Bellerive. DeChambeau also validated in winning the Shriners in Vegas, where he dominated from tee to green. It had been two months and one day since DeChambeau’s win at the Dell Technologies Championship, his second victory in as many weeks in the FedExCup Playoffs last season. He also further cemented his status as a premier ball-striker. He ranked 6th in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and 3rd in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green in Vegas, making up for his 45th in Strokes Gained: Putting. In all five of his wins, DeChambeau has not ranked worse than 27th in either SG: Off-the-Tee or SG: Approach-the-Green. 5. Spieth, Finau will command extra eyeballs in ’19 Jordan Spieth is back! That was the conventional wisdom after his opening 66 at the Shriners, his first fall TOUR start in the U.S., but rounds of 68-71-72 dropped him into a T55 finish. Not what he was looking for as he comes off a winless season that saw him struggle on the greens. There were fewer highlights as Spieth missed the cut at the Mayakoba Golf Classic (71-69) the next week, but focus may have been hard to come by as he prepped for his impending marriage to his longtime girlfriend, Annie Verret. A former world No. 1 and the 2015 FedExCup champion, Spieth, 25, has dropped to 16th in the Official World Golf Ranking, and will enter the 2019 portion of the schedule tied for 190th in FedExCup points. Tony Finau had better luck in the fall, but after looking nerveless while going 2-1-0 at the Ryder Cup, he shot a final-round 71 and lost a sudden-death playoff to Xander Schauffele at the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions in Shanghai. Finau, who still hasn’t won since breaking through at the 2016 Puerto Rico Open, later called it a missed opportunity. All of which says—what exactly? The fall doesn’t provide an adequate sample size, Spieth was on the verge of a major life event, and no less a superstar than Dustin Johnson had fumbled at the goal line at the WGC-HSBC Champions. (Yeah, he seemed to survive OK.) It happens. But going into 2019, the mega-talented Spieth and Finau aren’t just due for a win. They’re overdue.

Click here to read the full article…