Harris English, Matt Kuchar take five-shot lead at QBE Shootout

They’re back! After a one-year hiatus, FedExCup bonus points in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf will be returning for the 2019-20 season. Count on managing every tournament and Segment with that promise. Bonus points were eliminated this season, so it took just one week to realize that cuts made would fill the void as the most valuable currency. For gamers who didn’t register or start playing until 2018-19, your starters in every final round were credited with a fraction of FedExCup points applied to their finish. In events with ShotLink, the bonus was one-tenth the actual. In events without ShotLink, the bonus was one-half (to compensate for lighter fantasy scoring overall). While details concerning everything regarding the next iteration of PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf are forthcoming, the absence of bonus points grumbled the masses. Consider yourselves heard, gang! With no bonus points in play and with no cut at this week’s BMW Championship, only the nail-biters among contenders will lose sleep. This does not apply to my little league in which Ben Everill holds a 245-point edge over me in second, this despite one of my best efforts of the season at THE NORTHERN TRUST. I totaled 800 points, but because Ben got four to the weekend, I outpaced him by only 63. So, it’s over; well, as long as he remembers to save a lineup. Shhh… Looking ahead, with a full-field Power Rankings for next week’s TOUR Championship, this preview column will be abridged. It also means that this week’s Sleepers is the last edition until Tuesday, September 10, for A Military Tribute at the Greenbrier. My annual full-membership fantasy ranking should publish by Friday, Sept. 6, but timing on that always is fluid due to the numerous resources required to generate the finished product. As always, keep an eye on the FANTASY page and my Twitter for everything. PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf My roster for the BMW Championship (in alphabetical order): Tony Finau Dustin Johnson Brooks Koepka Louis Oosthuizen Patrick Reed Adam Scott You’ll find my starters in Expert Picks. Others to consider for each category (in alphabetical order): Scoring: Patrick Cantlay; Bryson DeChambeau; Rory McIlroy; Andrew Putnam; Jon Rahm; Justin Rose; Jordan Spieth; Justin Thomas Driving: Paul Casey; Jason Day; Bryson DeChambeau; Tommy Fleetwood; Lucas Glover; Jason Kokrak; Rory McIlroy; Jon Rahm Power Rankings Wild Card Jason Day … Classic rebound candidate. That I loved his short-lived commitment to Steve Williams to spark a relatively lackluster season, I guess you now know in which school I belong. (Hint: It’s not new.) Now handing caddie duties to friend and former PGA TOUR member David Lutterus, he of the different-colored eyelashes – black on the left, blond on the right – Day should have more fun in theory. Quite simply, I’ll buy that and the fresh start at 50th in the FedExCup. Draws Rickie Fowler … Inconsistency is killing this cat, but we have to set aside our emotion and remember that he doesn’t slump. A quietly strong T6 at The Open Championship is his only top-40 finish in five starts, and he’s managed a busy by sitting out the WGC-St. Jude, so fatigue isn’t a factor for the 17-seed. Keep the faith even though you can’t attach anything empirical to it. Bryson DeChambeau Jim Furyk Lucas Glover Kevin Kisner Francesco Molinari Xander Schauffele Vaughn Taylor Fades Keegan Bradley … He’s the defending champion, but he prevailed at Aronimink outside Philadelphia. If only he could find the kind of mojo with the putter that fellow major champions Justin Rose, Webb Simpson and most recently Adam Scott has captured, the 66-seed likely would be enjoying consistently strong form instead of looking up and seeing only one top 25 in his last 13 starts. Tiger Woods … It comes as zero surprise that he devoured the par 5s en route to both victories in the PGA Championship at Medinah. He led the field in 1999 with a scoring average of 4.44 on the set, and then “settled” for T4 at 4.50 in 2006. That narrative applies to every par 72 throughout his career, and he loves this course, but when his health interrupts performance, well, it’s worthy of more concern than just about anyone else. If there’s good news, it’s that he merely strained an oblique muscle. The learning curve continues as he balances how much he needs to rest without getting rusty competitively, but his body rules that court. Seeded 38th, he might need a top 10 to advance. Matt Kuchar … If there’s a bright side, it’s that he can’t miss consecutive cuts for the first time in eight years, but he hasn’t been himself since a closing 79 at Royal Portrush that bumped him 29 spots to a T41. He’s broken par just twice in his last seven rounds and has gone three starts without a top 40. However, he’s been a lock for the TOUR Championship as the top seed for months during the regular season. Currently fourth. J.B. Holmes Hideki Matsuyama Phil Mickelson C.T. Pan Gary Woodland Returning to Competition Rafa Cabrera Bello … Talk about a win-win! The Spaniard sat out THE NORTHERN TRUST for the birth of his first child and he retained position inside the top 70 in the FedExCup after sliding only eight spots to 67th. He’ll need to contend for a spot on the podium at Medinah to advance, but with nothing to lose in a no-cut event and in conjunction with the Nappy Factor, it’s a headline in waiting. Kevin Chappell … Out since November after having a microdiscectomy, the 33-year-old is giving it a go at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship. He’ll receive a Major Medical Extension in 2019-20 with somewhere in the vicinity of 22 starts to earn 268.297 FedExCup points and retain status, but a successful blast through the Korn Ferry Tour Finals would set up a safety net for the entire season. With a price tag of just $257K, full-season salary gamers especially will be monitoring his progress intently, as they should. Notable WDs Kevin Na … Done for the season at 55th in points, but for the best of reasons. His wife is due to deliver the couple’s second child soon. Power Rankings Recap – THE NORTHERN TRUST Power Ranking  Golfer  Result 1  Brooks Koepka  T30 2  Rory McIlroy  T6 3  Webb Simpson  T18 4  Justin Rose  T10 5  Jon Rahm  T3 6  Justin Thomas  T12 7  Rickie Fowler  MC 8  Patrick Cantlay  T12 9  Billy Horschel  T21 10  Francesco Molinari  82nd 11  Matt Kuchar  MC 12  Patrick Reed  Win 13  Tommy Fleetwood  T43 14  Adam Scott  5th 15  Dustin Johnson  T24 16  Sungjae Im  T38 17  Rory Sabbatini  T43 18  Jason Day  MC 19  Collin Morikawa  T52 20  Louis Oosthuizen  T6 Wild Card  Xander Schauffele  MC Sleepers Recap – THE NORTHERN TRUST Golfer  Result Brian Harman  T52 Russell Henley  T59 Troy Merritt  T12 Joaquin Niemann  T30 Kyle Stanley  T71 Birthdays among active golfers on the PGA TOUR August 13 … Tommy Gainey (44) August 14 … none August 15 … Ted Purdy (46); Harold Varner III (29) August 16 … none August 17 … none August 18 … Cameron Smith (26) August 19 … Jhonattan Vegas (35)

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Do not adjust your monitor or screen. Indeed, the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship is in its second edition of the 2020-21 season. And yes, we're only at the halfway point of 50 tournaments. The PGA TOUR has been proclaiming a super season and this qualifies as evidence, yet it's just the first of three tournaments with scheduled encores. The Masters and the U.S. Open will return to their traditional stages in April and June, respectively. Similarly, the 2021 edition of the Corales retreats into his customary position as an additional event contested concurrently with the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play. For a breakdown of what the 132-man field on the eastern edge of the Dominican Republic faces and what's at stake, scroll past the projected contenders. RELATED: Tee times POWER RANKINGS: CORALES PUNTACANA RESORT & CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP OTHER TO CONSIDER Justin Suh ... Rapidly making noise to remind fans that he's the forgotten fourth of the Class of 2019 headlined by Collin Morikawa, Viktor Hovland and Matthew Wolff. Suh is 4-for-5 on the PGA TOUR this season with a pair of top 15s, including a T14 at Corales. Pat Perez ... His reputation on paspalum is worthy and it paid off for a T21 in his Corales debut in September - he ranked sixth in putts per GIR — but it's still his most recent top 25 despite 15 starts in the interim. Thomas Detry ... The 28-year-old from Belgium has a pair of T33s in as many starts at Corales, so he's no stranger. Also strides in on the confidence buoyed by a pair of T9s in his last four starts abroad. Kelly Kraft ... Chasing the same Major Medical Extension magic that Hudson Swafford rode to victory in September. Kraft's track record here is superb. He's gone 3rd-T5-T14 with a scoring average of 68.83. The Honda Classic runner-up Brandon Hagy, 2019 Corales champion Graeme McDowell, Charles Howell III and Joel Dahmen will be among the notables reviewed in Tuesday's Fantasy Insider. When the PGA TOUR was in Punta Cana on the last weekend of September, a field of 144 was assembled for a stand-alone competition that rewarded 500 FedExCup points to champion Hudson Swafford, who also secured an exemption into the 2021 Masters. This time around, the top man of 132 entrants will bank 300 FedExCup points and will require another way to get into the Masters if he's not already eligible because that exemption is not on the table this week. However, spots in the 2021 PGA Championship, 2022 Sentry Tournament of Champions and the 2022 PLAYERS, among other invitationals, will be reserved in his name. This is to say that the revised version of the 2020 version was a bonus after it was among the casualties of the three-month shutdown due to the pandemic. And while obvious, it's nonetheless significant that we're far enough removed from the unscheduled break that this week's Corales marks the first time a tournament has been held a second time since. No, it hasn't been a full year since the start of the return to golf, but the cycle of the return visits starts in the Dominican Republic. En route to his winning pace of 18-under 264, Swafford ranked fifth in putts per greens in regulation and 10th in putting: birdies-or-better. Those are old-school-and-still-relevant measurements of efficiency and scoring with the putter when ShotLink technology isn't used. It won't be again this week. While thoroughly impressive and aligned with expectations for a champion in a shootout, he was the first of the winners at Corales not to lead his respective field in both putting metrics. Part of that has to do with its statistical inevitability, but it also can't be ruled out that the field was 12 larger as a stand-alone contest. Incidentally, as of Monday evening, 88 golfers in this week's field competed here in September. Swafford finished T14 in fairways hit and T26 in GIR, so he limited the stress to allow for a special week on the greens, but he also capitalized on the four par 5s by averaging 4.25 to rank T2. For the week, Corales yielded a scoring average of 71.118. That's a fair target again as the weather forecast essentially is identical. Mostly sunny skies will make room for passing clouds and the sight of a sprinkle, maybe. Daytime temperatures will eclipse 80 degrees with ease, while steady easterly breezes will favor lower ball flights and course management. But make no mistake, Corales is a resort course, so stockpiling the par breakers will present as an easy and early Easter egg hunt. Further fostering low scoring are the paspalum greens governed to measure just 11 feet on the Stimpmeter due to their exposure to the coastal breezes. Even shots struck from the thickest of the two-inch rough will have room to hold most greens. Still, as par 72s are concerned, this is as fair and consistent a test as the players will navigate. It will penalize the foolish. Corales' longest walk is 7,670 yards and, like PGA National last week, it features its own recognizable three-hole stretch. The par-4 16th, par-3 17th and par-4 18th are known affectionately as The Devil's Elbow. As a trio, they averaged 0.185 strokes over par in September. However, the par 3-4-3 swing of Nos. 9, 10 and 11 have been a bumpier road in each of the first three editions of the tournament. ROB BOLTON'S SCHEDULE PGATOUR.COM's Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton recaps and previews every tournament from numerous angles. Look for his following contributions as scheduled. MONDAY: Power Rankings (Match Play) TUESDAY*: Power Rankings (Corales); Fantasy Insider SUNDAY: Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Medical Extensions, Rookie Watch * – Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM's Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, which also publishes on Tuesday.

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News flash: Brooks Koepka wins non-majors, too. Any golfer would love to strut around with the label of a guy who rises up only for majors – he’s won four of them, so it’s not like it’s entirely inaccurate – but his body of work includes victories in three other tournaments on the PGA TOUR. Last year’s edition of THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES is among the competitions that he’s conquered. The Club at Nine Bridges on Jeju Island 60 miles south of mainland South Korea hosts for the third consecutive year. Scroll past the projected contenders for how the course has played, how those in the field should plan to attack it and more. POWER RANKINGS: THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES Jason Day, Jordan Spieth, Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter and Joaquin Niemann will be among the notables reviewed in Tuesday’s Fantasy Insider. THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES launches the latest iteration of the Asian Swing. It spans three weeks. The inaugural ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP in Japan is on deck and the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions in China is in the hole. All three tournaments are 78-man invitationals with no cut. This week’s contest incorporates both South Korean professionals via the Official World Golf Ranking and members of the KPGA. Two spots also are reserved for Asian Tour members. The majority of the field consists of PGA TOUR members in order of the 2018-19 FedExCup standings. Nine Bridges is a stock par 72 extending to 7,241 yards this year. That’s not long by today’s standards, but it’s 45 yards longer than last year’s tournament. The par-4 sixth, 15th and 16th holes are an aggregate 89 yards longer, the first two of which courtesy of new tees. Meanwhile, the par-5 12th is down 44 yards. At 554 yards, it’s the second-shortest of the four par 5s. Similar to how Golf Club of Houston’s par 5s stand tall against other sets on the PGA TOUR, the par 5s at Nine Bridges have proven to be challenging, averaging 4.88 and 4.70 in the first two editions, respectively. Koepka ranked T4 in par-5 scoring en route his title, but he paced the field in par-4 scoring. The bentgrass greens are large, so hitting them in regulation is priority one. Last year’s field averaged 13.5 per round. But at just 10 feet on the Stimpmeter, they’re slow for TOUR members. The size and speed help ease the course when gusty winds brush over the island, which is often. However, breezes are forecast to be light to moderate throughout the tournament. And with 4-5 feet of rain in recent weeks soaking the property, scoring likely to go lower than last year’s 70.946. Rain might fall on Friday, but they’ll be caught up by Saturday even with an extended delay given the latitude and limited field. Daytime highs will flirt with 70 degrees. ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE PGATOUR.COM’s Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton recaps and previews every tournament from numerous angles. Look for his following contributions as scheduled. MONDAY: Rookie Ranking, Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Medical Extensions, Power Rankings TUESDAY*: Sleepers, Fantasy Insider * – Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, which also publishes on Tuesday.

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