Kupcho battles through migraine headache to share LPGA lead

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Neither this week’s BMW Championship nor the TOUR Championship on Sept. 20-23 will feature cuts, so the strategy is simple. If you’re front-running, stymie your competition with chalk. Just be sure to position yourself properly with six worthy defensemen at East Lake. If you’re chasing, you’re forced to reach outside the box for the proverbial contrarian investments. My roster in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO is both chalky and loaded with ball-striking talents who might go overlooked in my little league. If Kyle Stanley in particular prevails or even contends, it’d be a bit like catching lightning in a bottle even though we see him coming. With no TOUR action next week, this column goes on hiatus until the week of the Playoffs finale. It’s why you’ll find two weeks of birthdays at the bottom. The Power Rankings for the TOUR Championship will slot all 30 qualifiers, so the Fantasy Insider will be abridged. Sleepers returns with the Safeway Open on Tuesday, Oct. 2. I’ll have a full-field Power Rankings for the Ryder Cup after the FedExCup champion is crowned. All of my weekly staples will turn over for the 2018-19 season right around then as well. They include the Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Medical Extensions and Rookie Ranking. And after eliminating comments from my full-membership fantasy ranking due to the absence of a break in between seasons a year ago, they will return for this year’s annual monster. I’ll tweet everything as it publishes. Remember, while you don’t have to register for Twitter to read my tweets that aren’t replies, you’ll find the same on the FANTASY page. Scroll to ROB BOLTON TWITTERFEED at your leisure. PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO My roster for the BMW Championship (in alphabetical order): Jason Day Bryson DeChambeau Hideki Matsuyama Francesco Molinari Justin Rose Kyle Stanley You’ll find my starters in Expert Picks. Others to consider for each category (in alphabetical order): Scoring: Tony Finau; Tommy Fleetwood; Dustin Johnson; Brooks Koepka; Marc Leishman; Rory McIlroy; Phil Mickelson; Cameron Smith; Jordan Spieth; Justin Thomas Driving: Keegan Bradley; Rafa Cabrera Bello; Patrick Cantlay; Paul Casey; Tommy Fleetwood; Emiliano Grillo; Billy Horschel; Adam Scott Approach: Keegan Bradley; Rafa Cabrera Bello; Dustin Johnson; Andrew Landry; Louis Oosthuizen; Chez Reavie; Jordan Spieth Short: Emiliano Grillo; Billy Horschel; Dustin Johnson; Phil Mickelson; Cameron Smith; Justin Thomas Power Rankings Wild Card Bubba Watson … En route to a T7 at TPC Boston, he led the field in strokes gained: off-the-tee, strokes gained: tee-to-green and par-5 scoring. He also checked up at second in distance of all drives and T10 in proximity. That confidence with his longest clubs should carry over to Aronimink where it figures to matter even more given the foreign putting surfaces. Draws Marc Leishman … The defending champion is one of the seven in the field who competed in both editions of the Quicken Loans National. He placed T7 in 2010, but Aronimink is a different track this time around. Nevertheless, his consistency week to week and potential to make noise is enough reason to trot him out there most weeks. The results and the stats aren’t necessarily glossy, but every fantasy team needs reliable depth. Emiliano Grillo … With respective rounds of 72 and 70 bracketing his T7 at the Dell Technologies Championship, he was the only golfer who finished inside the top 10 with fewer than three sub-70s, but the aggregate of the execution is why he deserves another strong look at Aronimink. He’s doing just fine in the Playoffs overall, but he’s excelling in proximity to the hole, ranking third. Billy Horschel … The bright side of his mid-tournament withdrawal at TPC Boston is that a sinus infection doesn’t hamper the golf swing. Assuming he’s turned the corner, expect him to resume pounding the leaderboard as he has for months. He checks all of the boxes analytically, too. Abraham Ancer (DFS) Keegan Bradley (all) Brain Gay (DFS) Kevin Kisner (DFS) Jason Kokrak (DFS) Louis Oosthuizen (all) Patrick Reed (SERVPRO) Brandt Snedeker (DFS) Gary Woodland (DFS) Fades Tiger Woods … This is relative to his form, nothing else. Pure and simple, he’s been putting poorly. In the Playoffs alone, he’s 97th in strokes gained: putting and T102 in birdies-or-better percentage with the putter. The good news is that he’s been grinding well (sixth in scrambling), but all that’s allowed is a T40 at Ridgewood and T24 at TPC Boston. Now, if you believe that he sets up as a contrarian against your competition, sleep well knowing that he’s 17th in the Playoffs in strokes gained: tee-to-green and eighth in his trademark strokes gained: approach-the-green. With sizable targets unfamiliar to the field, any reconnection with his putter could ignite a special weekend. Jon Rahm … This is a rare spot for him. As I’ve described before, his game is slump-proof, but he’s opened the Playoffs by going MC-T43 and hasn’t done a good job of managing his game after the tee ball. Perhaps the Ryder Cup is in the back of his mind – it’ll be the first time he’s representing Europe in the biennial competition – but he still wants to ramp into it with better feels. Webb Simpson … Held the 36-hole lead at the Dell Technologies Championship, but shot 76-74 post-cut to finish T49. That triggers the alarm on how he hits the ground running at Aronimink even though he competed in both editions of the Quicken Loans National when it was contested there. Henrik Stenson … If his left elbow is feeling better, he didn’t play like it at TPC Boston where he ranked T5 in greens hit but 73rd (of 76) in strokes gained: putting. The T69 was his fourth finish of T35 or worse in his last five starts. Pat Perez … Still in the field as of Tuesday afternoon. He withdrew during the Dell Technologies Championship when his wife went into labor with their first child. Currently 34th in the FedExCup standings. Chesson Hadley Brian Harman Charles Howell III Si Woo Kim Patton Kizzire Alex Noren Xander Schauffele Brendan Steele Returning to Competition Rickie Fowler … By sitting out the first two events of the Playoffs, he’s slid from 17th to 22nd to 26th in points. Therefore, he needs to log four rounds with some form to get to East Lake. However, you’re advised to let him go it alone what with the oblique injury that has prevented him from competing until now. Use this as a testing ground just in case he qualifies for the finale. We’ll reassess in two weeks if he does. Notable WDs Daniel Berger … He did well to climb from his opening position of 89th to 65th in the FedExCup standings after two events, but his decision not to play the BMW Championship could be an indication that he’s still bothered by a sore wrist. Gets at least one month off now to rest. Power Rankings Recap – Dell Technologies Championship Power Ranking  Golfer  Result 1  Justin Thomas  T24 2  Brooks Koepka  T12 3  Dustin Johnson  T7 4  Jason Day  MC 5  Tony Finau  T4 6  Bryson DeChambeau  Win 7  Patrick Cantlay  T24 8  Adam Scott  T49 9  Rory McIlroy  T12 10  Jordan Spieth  T12 11  Phil Mickelson  T12 12  Justin Rose  2nd 13  Billy Horschel  WD 14  Patrick Reed  T35 15  Tommy Fleetwood  T24 16  Jon Rahm  T43 17  Hideki Matsuyama  T4 18  Gary Woodland  T24 19  Paul Casey  T21 20  Kevin Na  MC Wild Card  Marc Leishman  T21 Sleepers Recap – Dell Technologies Championship Golfer  Result Kevin Chappell  T35 Joel Dahmen  MC Branden Grace  T43 Russell Knox  T43 Jamie Lovemark  76th Birthdays among active golfers on the PGA TOUR September 4 … none September 5 … none September 6 … Brice Garnett (35) September 7 … none September 8 … none September 9 … Hudson Swafford (31) September 10 … none September 11 … none September 12 … Ã�ngel Cabrera (49) September 13 … none September 14 … Will Claxton (37); Tony Finau (29); Emiliano Grillo (26) September 15 … Kevin Na (35) September 16 … Bryson DeChambeau (25) September 17 … Byeong Hun An (27)

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ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. — Harry Higgs lost his full PGA TOUR card toward the end of last season and took a step Friday at Sea Island toward getting it back. Higgs played bogey-free on the more difficult Seaside course for a 7-under 63, giving him a share of the lead with recent Texas grad Cole Hammer and Andrew Putnam going into the weekend of The RSM Classic. Plenty is at stake in the final official PGA TOUR event before a six-week break to end the year. Hammer, who had a 66 at Seaside, is playing on a sponsor exemption and has no full status on any tour. Putnam, whose only PGA TOUR title was in 2018, had a 65 on the Plantation course. He is playing for the eighth time in 10 weeks, having missed only the Butterfield Bermuda Championship in the fall because he’s made every cut — he was a runner-up in Japan — and because the weather isn’t all that great at home near Seattle. Higgs is an everyman, popular among his peers, and it stung to finish last season the way he did. After he tied for 14th in his Masters debut, Higgs missed the cut in 10 of his last 14 events to finish out of the top 125 in the FedExCup. He went to the Korn Ferry Tour Finals and missed the cut in all three of those tournaments. Now he has conditional status, and this presents a great opportunity. Job security can be stressful on the PGA TOUR, especially going into a season in which only 70 will qualify for the lucrative postseason. “It’s in the back of your mind. It always is for almost everybody except for some of the top players in the world,” Higgs said. “But it can motivate you to work a little bit harder, make better decisions. The goal is to not really have to worry about it come March or as early as possible, right?” The leaders were at 12-under 130. Joel Dahmen (64 on Plantation), Beau Hossler (67 on Plantation) and Sahith Theegala, who matched Higgs with a 63 on Seaside, were one shot behind. Dahmen won in the Dominican Republic last year and his exemption runs out after this season. He often rooms with Higgs, so he can appreciate the feeling of playing with the pressure of trying to keep a job. “Golf is very hard and it can go sour quickly. To play with freedom for … two-and-a-half years, really, never had that in my career. So yeah, teeing up in Napa was like, `OK, we’re back at square one. If you don’t play well, you don’t have a job.’ I was very aware of that. “I don’t think about it necessarily when I’m out there, but there’s been a couple extra days of practice, for sure.” The weather wasn’t quite as cold as the opening round, and scoring remained low. The cut was at 4-under 138. Hammer, who made his first PGA TOUR cut as a pro last week in Houston, made bogeys from the fairway on the seventh and eighth holes at Seaside — two of the easier holes for the day — and then turned it around with an approach to 3 feet on No. 9 and then a birdie putt from 18 feet on the next hole. He was bogey-free the rest of the way and will be in the final group on the weekend. “I was a little bit depressed after 7 and 8. I put myself in great position to make birdies and I walked out with two bogeys, and that’s almost inexcusable,” Hammer said. “But coming back firing on 9 and then making a birdie on 10 — erasing those bogeys on two of the tougher holes right away — was huge for momentum and for confidence.”

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