Horses for Courses: ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP

PALM HARBOR, Fla. – Buses were brought in from Miami and Orlando. Some 6,000 parking spaces were procured, and 160 portable toilets were added to the grounds. Extra server space was acquired to ensure the website could handle the increased traffic and the media center was doubled in size. These measures were all part of the 50-point checklist the Valspar Championship put into action after Tiger Woods committed to the tournament March 2. “We want everyone to be able to see him,â€� said tournament director Tracy West. And plenty did. She estimated that an additional 40,000 spectators came to Innisbrook’s Copperhead Course last week. Television ratings spiked, as well. West’s team was preparing for the unprecedented. This was Woods’ debut at the Valspar Championship. Now, after his successful week on the Copperhead Course, it looks like the new normal. At least for as long as he stays healthy. Of course, that’s a big ‘if’ for a man who’s had four back surgeries, but the recoils and club twirls we saw last week seemed to signify that he is. “He’s, I think, for real healthier this time because of the different surgery. I can tell by the way he’s swinging and carrying on off the golf course,â€� said his caddie, Joe LaCava. “He seems healthier. That’s the big difference.â€� Woods’ rebuilt back has proven strong enough to support his rebuilt swing. The talent never went away. The long birdie putt he holed on 17 heralded a return to the days when we could expect the unexpected from Woods. No, he didn’t win the Valspar Championship. In the final round, mediocre iron play and poor pace on his putts kept him out of the winner’s circle. Yes, Old Tiger would have probably stormed out of that second-to-last group with a 67. But, if we’re criticizing Woods for falling short Sunday, we’re likely falling into the same trap that we did during his best years. “We all took him for granted,â€� said his old Stanford teammate, Notah Begay. Even Woods’ competitors were cheering his return to contention. His absence provided the space for young stars like Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas to develop, but also showed that no one is capable of creating the environment that Woods does. “(We) got to see some amazing stuff and hear the roars,â€� said Valspar champion Paul Casey.  The familiarity of seeing Woods in Sunday red makes it easy to forget that this was just the 14th round of hislatest comeback. He spent most of the past two years out of the public spotlight, living “minute to minuteâ€� as he struggled with his back injuries. “You have no idea how hard it was,â€� he said. When he returned in January, he was just happy to be there. He simply wanted to play a steady schedule. A few weeks later, Woods looks like one of the best players on TOUR. He should be among the favorites for this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. He first won at Bay Hill in 1991, claiming the first of his six consecutive USGA amateur titles. He shared a victorious handshake with Palmer eight times. He’s won four of his last five starts at Bay Hill. When asked what he wanted to improve before Thursday’s opening round, he didn’t talk about his golf game. “Maybe get a few good lifts in,â€� he said. He wasn’t going to touch a club the day after the Valspar. Woods said he’s working as his own coach this season because no one knows what it’s like to swing 120 mph with a fused back. He’s right. He’s been influenced by all his previous teachers, but, at this point, does anyone need to teach him how to play? He seems to be tapping into his innate talent, and his body seems healthy enough to make the move his mind envisions. He’ll never be able to swing the way he did in 2000, but he’s back to hitting sky-high long-iron shots, shaping his short-irons and displaying deft touch around the greens. “You never lose your instinct. You lose your ability,â€� Begay said. “I don’t think that Nolan Ryan ever forgot how to pitch. Athletes don’t forget. Their bodies just expire.â€� Woods’ due date will come, as it will for all of us, but for now he’s keeping at bay the inexorable marching of time. He ranks second on TOUR in clubhead speed, the only 40-something in the top 30. He’s also inside the top 30 in three of the four Strokes Gained statistics: Approach-the-Green (19th), Around-the-Green (21st) and Putting (23rd). At the Valspar, he ranked inside the top 20 in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee, Approach-the-Green and Around-the-Green. “I think that I’ve gotten a little bit better than I was a couple weeks ago at Honda, keep getting a little bit better and sharper,â€� he said. He’s ranked highly in the Strokes Gained stats despite his poor play at Riviera, where he shot 72-76 to finish 111th. His struggles were so deep in that second start that it tempered some of the excitement following an impressive T12 at The Honda Classic. When he arrived at Innisbrook, we still didn’t know if this comeback would be full of fits and starts, if every step forward would be followed by two steps back. Nearly winning on a course that he hadn’t seen in more than two decades confirmed that Woods is ready to win, possibly sooner than later. He can remember a putt from 20 years ago, Begay said, but Woods couldn’t rely on course experience or good memories to carry him through this week. He last saw Innisbrook in 1996, in a co-ed exhibition event. The course has been renovated since then. Instead, he simply had to execute to contend at the Valspar. He displayed well-controlled iron play in the winds that swirled during the first three rounds, as well as a deft short game. He needed to hole just two putts outside 15 feet to earn a spot in Sunday’s second-to-last group. He made seven bogeys last week and just one apiece in each of the final three rounds. Only four players made fewer. He still struggles with his driver, but that’s been the case throughout the latter half of his career. He ranks 104th in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and 106th in Driving Distance (all drives) because of his reliance on long-irons and 3-woods off the tee. PGA National and the Copperhead Course are two layouts where control trumps distance off the tee, so he could navigate them with something less than driver. In the third round at Innisbrook, he hit long-iron off the tee on seven of the par-4s and par-5s. He used 3-wood and driver three times apiece. He’ll eventually need to hit more drivers. But, after just 14 rounds, it’s appropriate to marvel at the lengths he’s come instead of looking at the heights he once scaled. It’s not long ago that he wondered if he’d ever play golf again. “At this particular moment, don’t question the genius,â€� Begay said. “Just enjoy the music.â€�

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Here is the latest field list for the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play as of March 16. Top 64 – Official World Golf Ranking Dustin Johnson Justin Thomas Jon Rahm Jordan Spieth Hideki Matsuyama Sergio Garcia Jason Day Tommy Fleetwood Paul Casey Rory McIlroy Tyrrell Hatton Marc Leishman Alex Noren Phil Mickelson Pat Perez Matt Kuchar Rafa Cabrera Bello Brian Harman Patrick Reed Xander Schauffele Francesco Molinari Charley Hoffman Branden Grace Gary Woodland Louis Oosthuizen Ross Fisher Kiradech Aphibarnrat Daniel Berger Matthew Fitzpatrick Tony Finau Patrick Cantlay Kevin Kisner Kevin Chappell Bubba Watson Brendan Steele Haotong Li Webb Simpson Adam Hadwin Thomas Pieters Satoshi Kodaira Dylan Frittelli Jason Dufner Chez Reavie Jhonattan Vegas Yuta Ikeda Cameron Smith Patton Kizzire Charl Schwartzel Si Woo Kim Bernd Wiesberger Kyle Stanley Yusaku Miyazato Russell Henley Zach Johnson James Hahn Alexander Levy Peter Uihlein Ian Poulter Shubhankar Sharma Kevin Na Charles Howell III Joost Luiten Keegan Bradley Luke List

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In just five years, Jon Rahm’s performances at Torrey Pines have reverberated in the record books, indelibly tying the world’s No. 1 player to this southern California layout. In 2017, Rahm concluded his inaugural Torrey Pines appearance with a powerful exclamation mark, making eagle on the 72nd hole to seal victory. Rahm was the first player to win the event with a closing eagle since Tiger Woods in 1999, and the first to win in his Farmers Insurance Open debut since Arnold Palmer in 1957. Four years later, Rahm closed his first major championship victory in a similar fashion: with a red-hot Torrey Pines finish. Rahm closed birdie-birdie, becoming the first U.S. Open champion to birdie the final two holes of regulation since Tom Watson in 1982. His victory made him not only the first U.S. Open winner from Spain, but the first Spaniard to win any United States Golf Association championship. Rahm is a cumulative 51-under at the Farmers Insurance Open since 2017, the best cumulative score by any player in that span by five strokes. But what specifically has set Rahm apart from his peers in his 20 career rounds at this event? Twenty First Group dove into the numbers to explain. North Course Dominance Over the last five years, the North Course at Torrey Pines has played about two strokes easier than the South has. No player has taken more advantage of that disparity than Rahm, who in five career rounds on the North Course has a grand total of five bogeys. Rahm’s career scoring average of 66.4 on the North Course is the best of any player since 1990 with at least four competitive rounds there. His remarkable 6.20 birdies-or-better per round on the North Course ranks third-best in that span, trailing only Ryan Palmer (6.63) and Tom Kite (6.25). Rahm has hit less than 50 percent of his career fairways on the North Course (48.6 percent, to be exact), but it hasn’t impacted his ability to score on that layout. Thirty-three percent of the time Rahm has missed the fairway on a par-4 or par-5 on the North Course, he’s still gone on to make birdie or better. That is a significant advantage over the field average historically (20 percent). Rahm has been stellar on the par-4s at the North Course in his career, regardless of tee shot outcome: his 3.72 scoring average ranks third-best among players with four or more rounds played since 1990. Elite drives on the South Course While missing the fairway hasn’t penalized Rahm much on the North Course, that can’t usually be said for the South. Traditionally, only about 14 percent of players who miss a fairway on Torrey South go on to make birdie or eagle. That’s been no issue for Rahm – his driving accuracy leaps to 63 percent when playing the more difficult Torrey Pines South layout in this event. Since Rahm’s debut in 2017, there are 122 players with six or more Farmers Insurance Open rounds at Torrey Pines South. Of that group, Rahm is the only player to average a full stroke gained per round off the tee. Since Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee became available in 2004, Rahm’s average of +1.07 per round is the second highest of any player with a dozen or more rounds. Fellow tournament winner Bubba Watson (2011) is the only player in Rahm’s league in that regard, gaining 1.33 strokes off-the-tee per round in that span. More than 55 percent of Rahm’s Strokes Gained: Total on the South Course have come from tee shots, the third-highest rate of any player with 10 or more SG: Total on this course in the last five years. His ability off the tee has been especially beneficial on par-4s, where Rahm has gained, on average, half-a-stroke on the field with his drives per round. That is the third-highest rate on the South Course in that stretch, trailing only Cameron Champ (+0.77) and Luke List (+0.55). Different recipes to get it done Over the last 30 years, the players to average the most birdies-or-better per round at the Farmers Insurance Open are Woods (4.88) and Rahm (4.60). Not coincidentally, those are also the two players to win U.S. Open titles at the venue, with Woods’ unforgettable performance on a broken leg coming in 2008. But the two champions have used different formulas to separate themselves from the field on the South Course. While we mentioned Rahm using his driver to a distinct advantage, Woods has averaged just +0.34 Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee per round at Torrey South since ShotLink data became available in 2004. That’s less than one-third of the strokes Rahm gains from the tee box. Woods, however, has been peerless with his iron play on the South Course, averaging a stellar +1.24 Strokes Gained: Approach per round in that span. Of players with 12 or more rounds since 2004, Woods is one of just five players to average a full stroke gained per round in that statistic, and he ranks one-tenth of a stroke per round better than any other player. Much like how he has performed on the PGA TOUR in the last seven months, Rahm has found success through his bag in his career at this event. Since 2017, Rahm ranks well above average in every Strokes Gained statistic at this event – leading off-the-tee, and ranking 43rd in approach, 29th around the green and 48th in putting (out of 122 players with a minimum of six rounds). That’s a microcosm of the balanced excellence Rahm has been displaying week-in and week-out on TOUR: since July 1 of last year, Rahm leads all players in Strokes Gained ball-striking (off-the-tee + approach) and ranks No. 6 in Strokes Gained: Putting. The reigning world No. 1 is the justifiable betting favorite this week at the Farmers Insurance Open.

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