LaMelo Ball jumped off a moving golf cart for some reason

Johnson Wagner … Even headliners like Rory McIlroy, Rickie Fowler, Phil Mickelson and defending champion Jason Day won’t feel as comfortable as Wagner, who is a perennial Sleeper given he’s a member of Quail Hollow Club. He’s a three-time PGA TOUR winner, but this isn’t his club championship, so he’s absolved from the criticism that last year’s T13 was his first top 25 in 11 tries since he splashed onto the circuit in 2007. The course fits his eye in part because he’s a tee-to-green tactician, a skill set rewarded here. However, he’s also averaging over one stroke gained per tournament with his putter this season. His local knowledge mattered last year as he ranked third in strokes gained: putting and led the field in conversion percentage inside 10 feet. Luke List … The last time the long hitter landed in this space, he delivered with a T10 at Bay Hill. He’s cooled since, but inconsistency aligns with his reputation. Quail Hollow aligns with his profile, and it’s paid dividends. He finished T16 as a rookie in 2013 and a T9 last year when he slotted third in strokes gained: tee-to-green. Sits 14th on TOUR in the stat right now as well as ninth in par-5 scoring. Joel Dahmen … After making hay easier tracks last season, he’s replicating the process on stiffer tests in 2018-19. Already with a T9 at Torrey Pines, a T12 at TPC Sawgrass and a T16 at Harbour Town on the board, he’s projecting toward another top 20 at Quail Hollow. In fact, it wouldn’t be his first on the course as he placed T16 in his debut a year ago. The 31-year-old feeds off keeping his ball in play off the tee, and despite his evolving profile, he still doesn’t mind dipping into the red numbers. Currently T3 on TOUR with 39 of them this season. Matt Jones … Currently 110th in the FedExCup, but it wasn’t until a T13 at Torrey Pines three months ago that his rally was sparked. He’s 8-for-8 since with three top 20s in individual competition, including another T13 at Copperhead. The Aussie also is no stranger at Quail Hollow where he’s logged 21 rounds and recorded a pair of top 25, albeit not since a T21 in 2011, but that experience in conjunction with his recent consistency warrants this focus. Currently 50th on TOUR in strokes gained: tee-to-green, 34th in scrambling and T33 in par-5 scoring. Wyndham Clark … While the former Pac-12 Conference individual champ (2017) at the University of Oregon arguably is best known as a long hitter, he ain’t no one-trick pony. Now 25 years of age and in his rookie season on the PGA TOUR, he’s 12th in strokes gained: putting, second in putts per greens in regulation and fifth in putting: birdies-or-better. He also leads the circuit in conversion percentage inside 10 feet. His muscle off the tee means that he won’t be overwhelmed by the biggest of ballparks, but tough ones also are within his mastery. His last two top 20s occurred at PGA National (T7) and TPC San Antonio (T20). With four top 20s on the season, he’s sitting comfortably at 91st in the FedExCup standings as he debuts at Quail Hollow. 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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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – He was a global superstar with his own clothing line; a garage full of Bentley, Aston Martin, and Ferrari showpieces; and a home worthy of Architectural Digest. But somewhere along the line Ian Poulter lost his game. An injured foot forced him to attend the 2016 Ryder Cup as a Vice Captain, not a player, and by March of last year he was mired in a joyless slog to try to fulfill the terms of his Major Medical Extension. With his PGA TOUR card in the balance, it was time to have the Big Talk with his manager, Paul Dunkley. “It wasn’t just a meeting, it was like five days of really working out a plan,â€� Poulter said Wednesday from TPC Sawgrass, where he’ll try to improve on his T2 finish last year and become the first Englishman to win THE PLAYERS Championship. “… My life, my on-course, my off-course businesses, just really restructure what it is I have, I have to do, put some emphasis on the important things, and the stuff that really isn’t that important, just get rid of it. And clear up the distractions.â€� Poulter jettisoned his clothing line; narrowly fulfilled his Major Medical to keep his TOUR status for the rest of last season (more on that later); and, unburdened and reenergized, finished T2 at THE PLAYERS after a 116-yard shot through the foliage on 18 helped him salvage a crazy bogey. The rest is history. His run to the quarterfinals at the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play earlier this season, when he was erroneously told his world ranking would get him into the Masters. His 20-foot birdie putt to force a playoff with Beau Hossler at the Houston Open, Poulter pounding his chest “like some mad gorillaâ€� (his words) before winning the playoff to punch his ticket to Augusta. Today, Poulter, 42, is 25th in the FedExCup, 26th in the Official World Golf Ranking. He looks like a solid bet to make the European Ryder Cup team, and is contending regularly again. He took a one-shot lead into Sunday at the RBC Heritage last month, but playing for the sixth week in a row he bonked with a 75 to finish T7. No harm done; he was back. Success has many fathers, but you’d have to say the Poults Revival Tour traces back to THE PLAYERS last year, and specifically that 116-yard shot through the trees on 18. “I definitely think it was a huge part of 2017 for me,â€� he said. “Just to be told I was exempt to play was a huge bonus, and obviously to then kick on from that and play well, finishing runner-up, obviously enabled me to go back to Europe and play a bit more and really kind of work on a schedule. And that was obviously very helpful into the start of 2018, which has been a pretty good start to the year.â€� The key word there is schedule. Poulter likes to have one, and when his ranking bottomed out at 207th after The Honda Classic last year, things weren’t looking good. Easing into his 40s, he seemed to be headed for that no-man’s land in which players rely on sponsor’s exemptions, past-champion status, and/or career earnings to get tournament starts.   “Someone who’s quite OCD, to not know what they’re doing, is not very good,â€� he said. “So, to have stuff mapped out is quite nice.â€� On the subject of maps, Poulter will play on the other side of the Atlantic this summer, which he feels will give him the best chance to make his sixth Ryder Cup team. In the Year of the Comeback (Tiger, Phil, Jason, Rory et al) a revitalized Poulter seems to bode especially well for Europe. “I’m so happy for him,â€� said McIlroy, who was the fiery Englishman’s partner when Poulter’s birdie rampage resuscitated Europe at the 2012 Ryder Cup at Medinah. “Poults is one of the best guys out here.â€� When he was a boy, Poulter tested the patience of his teachers. One of them, he says, told him he would never amount to anything while jabbing him in the chest hard enough to leave a mark. He remembers the name of the teacher, remembers the whole thing like it was yesterday. He kept at it, which meant trying and mostly failing to beat his older brother, Danny. Poulter began his golf career as a lightly regarded club pro in England, selling sweaters, giving lessons, and gaining more infamy than fame for rarely making it to work on time. He kept at it. The last 18 months brought more turbulence, starting with the threat of losing his TOUR card, which seemed especially real when it seemed he hadn’t done enough through the 2017 Valero Texas Open, the last start of his Major Medical. (A math irregularity revealed he had, in fact, earned enough FedExCup points.) He was told he had done enough to make this year’s Masters, and then told he hadn’t. He kept at it. It drives Poulter crazy to be told he can’t, but it also has fueled his surprising, sui generis career. And he might be just coming into his own. He’s more than the bug-eyed Ryder Cup killer, or the guy who trails only Tiger Woods in all-time matches won (27) and played (41) at the WGC-Dell Technologies. With two runner-up finishes at THE PLAYERS, he knows TPC Sawgrass suits him. And beyond that? If history is any guide, you’d have to say anything is possible. “There’s still things I’m working on to try and get better,â€� Poulter said. “And I feel I’ve got a lot more in me to give. With that in mind, I think I can still win big tournaments. I still think I can win a major. Other guys have done that over the age of 42, and I would like to think I still can.â€� As the old chestnut goes, whether you think you can or you can’t, the surest way to help Ian Poulter win THE PLAYERS is to tell him he has no chance.

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