Jim King, PGA TOUR and PGA TOUR Champions player dies at age 86

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Notes and observations from Thursday’s first round of the Wyndham Championship, where Matt Every shot a career-best, 9-under 61 to lead after the morning wave of the first round. North Carolina native Webb Simpson headed up a group of five players at 63, while 53-year-old University of North Carolina alumnus Davis Love III was among those at 64. EVERY CONQUERS ‘DRIVER YIPS’ Most multiple PGA TOUR winners spend their days dissecting the fine line between good golf and transcendent golf. Matt Every, languishing at 183rd in the FedExCup, has become an expert on another, less-appreciated subtlety of the game. “There’s bad drives and then there’s foul balls,â€� Every said. “There’s a big difference.â€� Every would know. After successfully defending his title at the 2015 Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard, his game disintegrated. Never very straight—his driving accuracy percentage was just over 50 percent even in 2014-2015—his misses started bypassing the rough and flying over fences, instead. “The last couple years, a lot of people would have quit the game in my position,â€� Every said. He had, in his words, the driver yips. Sometimes he would flush his drive straight down the fairway, but all too often he’d hit it so crooked he would have to re-tee. He had lost any and all resemblance to the player who tamed Bay Hill and won the API two years in a row. Every has always marched to his own drummer. He doesn’t like eating in player dining because there’s too much golf talk. In his TOUR bio, he says his dream foursome would include estranged Oasis band members Liam and Noel Gallagher, and “some sort of counselor so we could get the best band in the world back together.â€� But with his game in shambles, Every needed help, and found it in Atlanta-based instructor Scott Hamilton. They began working together “like four, five months ago,â€� Every said, and found that he was getting stuck on the downswing. His arms and hands would either quit on the way down or fly through the impact zone, leaving the accuracy of his shots dependent on timing. The fix has taken some time to pay dividends. In part, Every said, that’s because he had to see enough good shots coming off his driver to replace a lot of bad memories. He hit nine of 14 fairways at Sedgefield on Thursday, which was the same as players like Webb Simpson and Vaughn Taylor, but more importantly his bad shots weren’t that bad. Every cited his miss at the 11th hole, which merely wound up in the left rough, from which he made a par. He’s no longer the guy who missed 20 cuts this season. He’s the guy who has made three straight, including a T14 at the RBC Canadian Open. “It’s night and day,â€� Every said. LOVE STILL A WYNDHAM WIZARD Davis Love III won the 2015 Wyndham Championship, becoming the third-oldest TOUR winner at 51 years, four months, 10 days of age, but he never got a chance to defend his title. That’s because the 21-time winner, who will be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in September, was recovering from hip surgery at last year’s Wyndham. Now 53 and bidding to become the oldest winner ever on TOUR—Sam Snead was 52 when he won for the eighth time in Greensboro in 1965—Love hit all 18 greens in regulation on the way to an opening-round 64 on Thursday. “I like old style golf courses, traditional architecture,â€� Love said of Sedgefield C.C., a 1925 Donald Ross design. “This is certainly one of the best on TOUR. This one and Greenbrier are two of my favorite courses now on TOUR, and it’s not a bomber’s golf course. It’s one where you have to think your way around it, put in the right positions.â€� Love has three wins in Greensboro, and this week marks the 25th anniversary of his first, at nearby Forest Oaks. He’s won the PGA Championship and THE PLAYERS Championship, twice. He has played vital roles in Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup victories, and now his son Dru, who shot a 3-under 67 at Sedgefield on Thursday, sometimes plays in the same tournaments. But DL3, 209th in the FedExCup, just keeps on going through a torn labrum in his hip, through a broken collarbone (snowboarding) last winter. He played with Webb Simpson and Ryan Moore on Thursday, which couldn’t have been a better group, what with Simpson also getting hot, and Moore reminding Love that he’d gone low and won last time they played together here, in 2015. “I’d like to keep playing with him for a while,â€� Love said. SIMPSON’S CAREER REVIVAL CONTINUES Webb Simpson was another familiar face in the spotlight Thursday, what with Simpson having been born in Raleigh and currently residing in Charlotte, North Carolina. He also won the 2011 Wyndham, and named his third child Wyndham, for good measure. (No, the other three aren’t named Deutsche Bank Championship, Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, and U.S. Open.) Alas, it’s been a lean couple of years since Simpson’s fourth and most recent victory, at the 2014 Shriners Hospitals. Although he made the FedExCup playoffs the last two years, he didn’t win, and slogged through self-doubt. Now, though, Simpson, 32, is starting to look like his old self. Simpson lost a playoff to Hideki Matsuyama at the Waste Management Phoenix Open earlier this season, and is 37th in the FedExCup. On Thursday, he started on 10 and scorched the back nine with a 7-under 28; made two bogeys on the front; and ultimately signed for a 63. “I got a little excited thinking about—I’m not that far off from 59,â€� Simpson said. “But on the cart ride to the first tee I tried to kind of put it aside and get that ball in the fairway. Yeah, you don’t have many opportunities out here to do it. Today was certainly one of them.â€� One of many who had to revise his tactics on the green with the anchoring ban, Simpson took a tidy 25 putts Thursday after hitting nine of 14 fairways and 12 of 18 greens in regulation. He hasn’t missed a cut since the Wells Fargo Championship in May, and says he’s playing even better than he did during his near miss in Phoenix earlier this year. “I feel like I’ve been playing better for a longer period of time,â€� he said. “The game is more consistent.â€� He called his first nine holes, “the best start I’ve ever had to a tournament.â€� Another three days like this and he could be setting himself up to match his best year, too—at least in the FedExCup. He won twice and finished second in the season-long points race in 2011. “We’re obviously close to where I grew up,â€� Simpson said. (Raleigh is just over an hour from Greensboro, and Simpson attended nearby Wake Forest.) “I grew up playing courses similar to this that aren’t too long, hit different clubs off the tee, some doglegs. So, there’s a comfort here that I feel like I don’t have at a lot of places. I’ve always loved playing close to home.â€� SHOT OF THE DAY

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As happenstance goes, the decision to resume the 2019-20 PGA TOUR season with a three-week run at courses (the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial CC; the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links; the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands) that are hugely popular and tournaments so rich in history could not have been more perfect had Jim Furyk been given the job to map things out. “There are always tournaments that I earmark that I love playing. Funny, but those three tournaments are three I would usually play,� said Furyk, who was 49 when last we were playing competitive golf – March 12 at THE PLAYERS Championship. During the pandemic, Furyk turned 50, and while he has circled some PGA TOUR Champions tournaments onto his calendar, he’s anxious to get into this early part of the re-start. No surprise, given what he has accomplished at these first three tournaments. At Colonial, which “used to be my favorite event early in my career,� Furyk has twice been runner-up, including a playoff loss in 2007, and in 22 starts he has seven top 10s. At Harbour Town, where he has played 20 times, Furyk has won twice, finished second, and recorded eight top 10s. “The RBC is my favorite event,� he said. Then there’s TPC River Highlands, where in 2016 Furyk established PGA TOUR history with the lowest competitive round, a scintillating 58. “So, you look at those first three events and they’ve been really good to me and I enjoy them,� he said, “so it was kind of easy to say, ‘OK, I’ll play these three.� Makes sense, of course, but the thing is, Furyk could be speaking for a healthy line of his colleagues. That’s because these cozy and familiar settings have been a source of consistent success for more players than just Furyk. All three courses are linked by two common denominators: One, they are relatively short and demand precision over power, and two, each has been a longtime staple on the PGA TOUR schedule. Colonial has hosted a tournament annually since 1946; Harbour Town since 1969; TPC River Highlands since 1984. While Fort Worth, Texas, certainly qualifies as a big city, the neighborhood around Colonial screams old-school friendly, so the community embrace of the Charles Schwab Challenge is a serious undertaking. As for Hilton Head Island, South Carolina (RBC Heritage) and Cromwell, Connecticut (Travelers), we are talking big-time shows powered by small-town love. Never have these tournaments fallen in succession on the PGA TOUR schedule. Harbour Town is an April stop, Colonial a May fixture, and TPC River Highlands locked into June. But with all facets of our world turned upside down in this pandemic, there has been a demand for out-of-box solutions and creative minds came up with a mid-June start that will provide players the Colonial-Harbour Town-TPC River Highlands trifecta. That was sweet music to PGA TOUR members who favor a style of play that is a throwback to a bygone era. “I feel all three courses would certainly be characterized as some of my favorites,� said Zach Johnson, who has won twice at Colonial, been runner-up at Harbour Town, and third at TPC River Highlands. “They’re different, but also have some similarities. They’re not overly long and they reward quality ball-striking. Straight tee shots (are important) where fairways are a premium, and trajectory control, especially at Colonial and Harbour Town where it is usually windy (is important).� If you were to tell longtime PGA TOUR fans that there is one player who has won at each of these three courses, that he was a prototype ball-striking machine and arguably managed golf courses better than anyone in his prime, we’re going to wager that the name Nick Price would be suggested. Bingo. A masterful tactician who controlled his trajectory brilliantly and could shape shots both ways, Price won twice at Colonial, and once each at Harbour Town and TPC River Highlands. In a combined 43 starts at those golf courses, Price recorded 12 top-10s and you can be sure that were he still in his competitive prime, he’d put his arms around the opportunity to play these courses three weeks in a row. He’d have great company, too, because the sentiments of Furyk and Johnson are shared by many of their PGA TOUR brethren. That is the undeniable appeal of these shot-maker’s golf courses and when you study past results, it’s no surprise to see how great players have fared well at these venues. Phil Mickelson (twice at Colonial, twice at TPC River Highlands) and Stewart Cink (twice at Harbour Town, twice at TPC River Highlands) have four wins at these golf courses, while Boo Weekley (twice at Harbour Town and once at Colonial) and Kenny Perry (twice at Colonial, once at TPC River Highlands) found the winner’s circle three times. The comfort zones at these courses is very real but it goes beyond just knowing that they “fit your eye,� as the saying goes. Impressively, while these courses are friendly to shorter hitters, they do not throttle big hitters, either and winners at both ends of the spectrum punctuate the rollcalls of champions. Davis Love III, for instance, was ferociously long in his prime, and he won five times at Harbour Town. Players who can move it from one zip code to another – Adam Scott, Sergio Garcia, Mickelson, Perry – have won at Colonial, and then there is the uncanny Bubba Watson. Seven of the last 10 winners at The Travelers Championship ranked between 75th and 170th in driving distance at season’s end the year they won. The only three exceptions? All Watson, who was 9th in 2018, 2nd in 2015, and 2nd in 2010, the years he won the Travelers. Ask him why and Watson will tell you that stepping onto the TPC River Highlands property and its 6,841 yards is like a pair of comfortable slippers. It just feels right. To Johnson, that goes beyond the courses. It starts with the companies (Charles Schwab at Colonial, RBC at Hilton Head; Travelers at TPC River Highlands) behind the tournaments. “They all have phenomenal title sponsorships. (They all) understand how to utilize the golf platform for entertainment, stewardship, and charitable awareness. I admire their leaders and I am grateful they want to be a part of the PGA TOUR,� he said. True, it will be a PGA TOUR with a vastly different feel and look come June 11 when competitive golf is played for the first time in three months. “I’m anxious to kind of even learn more about how just a normal day on the PGA TOUR is going to look now,� said Furyk, “because it’s going to be so much different than what I’ve been used to for the last 27 years.� No one would argue with that. But if it would be possible to suggest it won’t take long for Furyk and colleagues to get comfortable, the answer would likely be the cozy confines of Colonial, Harbour Town and TPC River Highlands.

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Through 36 holes at The RSM Classic, Charles Howell III leads by 3 strokes at 14 under par. His closest pursuers are Cameron Champ and Jason Gore, both of whom are sitting on 11 under. Here are the top 10 win probabilities according to our live model: We have Champ and Howell III estimated to be of nearly identical ability levels; therefore the 30 percentage point advantage for Howell III is entirely due to his current 3 stroke advantage. A little further back is Webb Simpson at 6 under par. Simpson is by a wide margin the class of this field according to our model and could be a player to watch for over the weekend. Howell III has been a model of consistency throughout his career. Shown below is his performance data for every tournament since the 2014 season. The y-axis here is in units of adjusted (for field strength) strokes-gained. Remarkably, despite having a 10 event moving average (the black line) that fluctuates between 0 and +1 for most of this time span, Howell III had just 1 event in which he averaged more than +3 strokes-gained. This is statistically very unlikely, and indicates that Howell III is a low-variance player (i.e. has fewer great rounds but also fewer poor rounds than the typical player of his ability level). To win on the PGA TOUR, anywhere from a +2.5 to +6 true strokes-gained performance can be required to get it done (depending on field strength and how widely dispersed scores are in a given week). To win this weekend for the first time since 2007, Howell will almost certainly need to average above that +3 strokes-gained barrier for the week. NOTE: These reports are based off the live predictive model run by @DataGolf. The model provides live “Make Cut�, “Top 20�, “Top 5�, and “Win� probabilities every 5 minutes from the opening tee shot to the final putt of every PGA TOUR event. Briefly, the model takes account of the current form of each golfer as well as the difficulty of their remaining holes, and probabilities are calculated from 10K simulations. To follow live finish probabilities throughout the remainder of The RSM Classic, or to see how each golfer’s probabilities have evolved from the start of the event to the current time, click here for the model’s home page.

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