Horses for Courses: AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am

Here are nine tidbits from the final round of the CareerBuilder Challenge that gamers can use tomorrow, this weekend or down the road. Be looking for the Emergency 9 shortly after the close of play of each round of the tournament. Rah Rah Rahm The most picked player in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO and PGA TOUR Fantasy One & Done presented by SERVPRO did exactly what he was supposed to do. Jon Rahm, the highest ranked player in the field at No. 3 in the OWGR, needed four playoff holes to win for the second time on TOUR. What a difference a year makes as this time last year he was No. 137 and had zero wins. He’s added the Farmers Insurance Open, the Irish Open and the DT World Tour Championship in those 12 months. He’s played two events on TOUR this season and has finished first and second. There’s nothing better in fantasy golf when the player meets the gamer’s expectations. Gracias! #NappyFactor Andrew Landry’s wife is due in March. This is his third top 10 in seven events in the new season and best finish on TOUR. He showed his meddle down the stretch as his birdie putt on the final hole forced a playoff. He only made one bogey on the week, his 60th hole, but it didn’t deter him. He’ll rue his chance on the second playoff hole as his putt for birdie and the win didn’t scare the hole. He’ll add this to his Oakmont experience from last summer and should be in the mix as 2018 rolls on. I’d stick him in any keeper league and watch him grow. No Questions for John John Huh hasn’t cashed a top 10 check since last March at Innisbrook before T3 Sunday. He hasn’t landed on the podium since the 2014 Barracuda Championship! Gamers might want to put a circle around him for next year as this was his third top 30 in four tries in the Coachella Valley. His weekend (65-66) included eight birdies on Saturday and six birdies and an eagle on Sunday. Had Another Chance Adam Hadwin didn’t show any signs of life in four events during the fall and only put two rounds of 16 in the 60’s. Course historians will point out that he was T6 in 2016 and second last year after his 59 Saturday at La Quinta. While his normally trusty putter wasn’t firing like he expected, his iron game saw him peg T7 GIR. His 68 Sunday was his worst round of the week and he still finished T4. It’s obvious that this course rotation fits his eye and game. California Dreamin’ Fresno native Kevin Chappell (T6) is going to petition the tournament committee to have ALL four rounds at the Stadium Course. He fired a bogey-free 64 Friday on his first trip. He added six more birdies for 67 on Sunday. The Stadium Course was the only track of the three to use ShotLink and it validated Chappell’s love. He led those who played the Stadium Course twice in SG: Approach to the Green, Tee to Green and Total. He was also T2 in GIR for the week across all three tracks. Chappell has never MC in six tries at this event. All in the Family His grandfather Arnold Palmer won this event five times. Grandson Sam Saunders collected a check for the first time in four tries. His 64 on Sunday was the low round of the day by two shots and vaulted him up the leaderboard 34 spots to T8. His 28 birdies were T1 for the week. He flashed signs at the Web.com Finals last fall as he fired 59 at Atlantic Beach. He hovered around the top 10 at Sony last week before fading on Sunday to T25. He’s never had more than two top 10’s in a season or finished in FedExCup top 125. Caution. Grandstand Finishers Canadian Nick Taylor’s 66 saw him quietly collect his fifth top 32 paycheck in seven starts this season. … Bud Cauley, one of my favorites, kept his streak of hitting T14 or better in the new rotation with his closing 66. He’s now cashed T14, T3 and T14 the last three years and is 51-under-par. … Harris English popped onto the radar for a hot second last week. His second round 65 caught my eye but his weekend (70-72) kept me away. He flashed 66 Sunday to move up 22 spots to T11. Noted. Familiar Faces PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO most popular player won the tournament but only two of the top 10 selected players missed the cut, Phil Mickelson and Patrick Reed. Mickelson broke a streak of 12 events in a row once again proving that there are no guarantees in fantasy golf. Reed is a former champion but his win is his only top 10 in six tries. Of those eight selected playing on Sunday none finished inside the top 20. Fantasy golf is hard. Study Hall Sergio Garcia won the Singapore Open by five shots to start his 20th year as a professional. Pat Perez collected T21 money but will not play in his hometown event this week at the Farmers Insurance Open. … Tommy Fleetwood shot 65 and came from five shots off the pace to defend his title at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. Rory McIlroy (70) cashed T3 while Dustin Johnson was T9. Justin Rose, who is playing Torrey Pines, was bogey-free in the final round to claim T22. … C.T. Pan tweeted Sunday he had the flu this week and that was a factor to him missing the cut. He was T2 at the Farmers Insurance last year. … The top four finishers at the Singapore Open (not previously qualified) Jazz Janewattananond, Lucas Herbert, Danthai Boonma and Sean Crocker booked their spots at The Open Championship at Carnoustie. 

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Harold Varner III … All you ever needed to know about his spirit was realized in the wake of a closing 81 at the PGA Championship where he settled for a share of 36th place but admitted enjoying just being on the scene for the experience. In the context of the opportunity lost, it didn’t hurt that his 2019-20 card was locked up months ago. Currently 85th in points, his most recent of eight top 25s this season was a T21 at the Travelers Championship where he ranked seventh strokes gained: putting and fifth in scrambling. Amid a heater en route to a solo sixth at last year’s JDC, he missed on only three of 71 attempts inside 10 feet. Vaughn Taylor … Continues to flourish at 43 years of age. He’s 6-for-6 with three top 20s since the Wells Fargo Championship. Finished fourth three weeks ago at TPC River Highlands where he paced the field in proximity to the hole and ranked second in putting: birdies-or-better. Sits T9 on TOUR in proximity, fifth in strokes gained: putting, fifth in red numbers (49) and T4 in sub-70s (T37). And since his debut at TPC Deere Run in 2004, he’s 8-for-12 with four top 20s. His scoring average in his last eight loops around the track is 68.125. J.T. Poston … Still having trouble finding the handle in final rounds, but the third-year talent out of Western Carolina University puts himself in position often enough that he’s bound to connect at some point. His most recent bit of unfinished business stung him in his last start at the Rocket Mortgage Classic two weeks ago. After sitting alone in second place through 54 holes, he stumbled home in 73 to finish T11. In his two previous appearances at TPC Deere Run, he’s beaten par in each of the first three rounds but closed with 73 both times. One of these days, something he throws against the wall is going to stick and it might as well be a spot where he keeps coming back for more. Dominic Bozzelli … Because he’s navigating just his third season on the PGA TOUR, the 28-year-old can’t be labeled as a horse for a course just yet, but TPC Deere Run is first in line if he reaches the stable. Both of his appearances resulted in top 25s and his scoring average in those eight rounds is 68.00. The only other event at which he’s recorded multiple top 25s (of seven others in all) is the Desert Classic where he has a pair of fifth-place finishes. And why not? The correlation between the two events is a shootout and he can roll it with the best of ’em. Currently ninth on TOUR in strokes gained: putting and 12th in putting: birdies-or better. Dylan Frittelli … The 29-year-old has been feeling the heat all season. While 153rd in the FedExCup and under pressure to secure conditional status as a safety net for next season, there have been rumblings of late that he’s ready to pop. After a T46 in Detroit, he sat T9 entering the final round in Minnesota, only to plummet to another T46 with a Sunday 73 due to a tee-to-green game that abandoned him. Yet, he ranked 13th in strokes gained: tee-to-green for the week and he’s 41st on TOUR in the stat this season. So, he might be close and he has the bonus of being able to tap into the experience of a pair of European Tour victories just two years ago. NOTE: Sleeper is a relative term, so Rob uses unofficial criteria to determine who qualifies. Each of the following usually is determined to be ineligible for this weekly staple: Winners of the tournament on the current host course; winners in the same season; recent major champions; top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking; recent participants of team competitions.

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