Late birdie run gives Schenk 1-shot lead in Vegas

SILVIS, Ill. — With 50 mini-tour wins, give or take, to his credit, Eric Cole knows he has game. Having spent 12 years chasing the coveted opportunity to follow his father, Bobby Cole, onto the PGA TOUR, Cole also knows the difference is both vast and minute between the brand of golf played on the minis and the game that succeeds on a major-league level. “You don’t have the depth that you have in like a Korn Ferry event or out here on the PGA TOUR, but you’re still playing against the top few guys that are really, really good — guys who either have had success out here in the past or are capable of it in the future,” said Cole, who has actually lost count of his many mini wins. “It’s kind of crazy how many good young players there are playing the Korn Ferry Tour and just kind of learning the ropes of professional golf, guys are going to have a lot of success out here in the near future.” As he readies at this week’s John Deere Classic for his third PGA TOUR start in the past five months, the 33-year-old Cole is working to build on his nearly two years of competing on Korn Ferry Tour. In March, he advanced through a PGA TOUR Monday qualifying event for the first time in several tries and logged a 22nd-place finish at the Corales Puntacana Resort and Club Championship. Last month, he advanced through two rounds of qualifying for the United States Open and, despite shooting rounds of 77 and 73 and missing the cut at Torrey Pines, learned some major lessons. Thursday at 8:35 p.m., Cole will head off the first tee at TPC Deere Run for his seventh official TOUR round after again successfully playing his way into the field through John Deere Classic Monday qualifying. His hope is to cash out Sunday with enough FedExCup points to finish 200th in the year-end TOUR standings and punch his ticket to the impending Korn Ferry Tour qualifying finals. “Where I’m at on the Korn Ferry points list, with the two seasons in one, it takes a lot to move from 107th where I’m at to top 75,” he said of his decision to compete for a John Deere Classic opportunity. “I already have some non-member FedExCup points from Puntacana, so if I could get in that top 200 that’s kind of where my focus turned.” That’s his hope. His dream, of course, is bigger. Joining defending champion Dylan Frittelli and the 22 others who scored their maiden PGA TOUR victory over 49 Quad Cities events would be a life-changing occurrence. That’s an unspoken dream, however. Although his father is a former British Amateur champion and winner on the 1977 Buick Invitational and his mother, Laura Baugh, was an LPGA Tour Rookie of the Year with a bevy of top 10 finishes on the premier women’s tour, Cole knows well that a place on TOUR is anything but a birthright. Highlighted by a tie for third at the Savannah Golf Championship last October, Cole’s inaugural opportunity on the Korn Ferry TOUR represents the pinnacle of his professional career. Still, it has been a challenge and then some. He has made 14 cuts In 27 starts in a combined season elongated by the pandemic, and Savannah represents his lone top 10. As such, he has gained a keener understanding of the miles-deep talent in a game that’s grown far beyond what his father faced at the advent of the all-exempt TOUR in the 70’s. So, he’ll tee it up Thursday with ample perspective and genuine appreciation. “I’ve definitely had a bit of a grind this year, and then in the past doing more Mondays and mini-tour stuff years ago,” he said. “It’s just something that you have to kind of take the positives of and try and find a way to enjoy it. If you’re not one of those kids coming out of college and really having extreme superstar success, it’s something that you have to kind of relish, take the positives and enjoy it when you can.”

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Tiger Woods will be accompanied by two of golf’s biggest names when he returns to the PGA Tour at this week’s Memorial.

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With the Power Rankings for the TOUR Championship slotting all 30 qualifiers in pursuit of the 14th FedExCup title, this weekly Fantasy Insider column is predictably abridged. But that's not to say that it's without valuable and timely information. After all, the 2020-21 season begins in nine sleeps with the Safeway Open on Thursday, Sept. 9. First, the bad news. I will not be writing a full-membership fantasy ranking. Given that membership isn't turning over and with only two days in between seasons, the energy and focus is devoted elsewhere. Ever since the wraparound season was introduced in 2013, I've joked that it's stressed fantasy planning due to tight scheduling, but this year's squeeze is unprecedented. In place of the ranking will be a season primer that will read a lot like the customary introduction to the annual ranking. It'll be an evergreen guide. More on its timing below. RELATED: Power Rankings | Expert Picks | Eight things to know about East Lake While membership isn't changing, there is movement in the ranks. The next update to the Korn Ferry Tour graduate reshuffle page will list the opening order of the golfers who didn't qualify for the FedExCup Playoffs and who don't have status via a victory. Because there are no KFT grads in 2020-21, the title of the page will change. That'll be your cue for what's new if you don't already look at the date at the top. Medical Extensions will be updated at the same time as the Reshuffle. Plan on both being ready by Monday. Qualifiers will remain as fluid as it's ever been as the governing bodies around the world continue to adapt to the pandemic and how it influences their schedules. If you draft with an emphasis on who is exempt into the events included on that page, plan on no worse than the baseline constructs of how those fields have been assembled in recent memory. Anything unusual will be considered a bonus. The Rookie Ranking will be taking on a different form in 2020-21. Because there won't be any rookies to start the season, there won't be anything to rank. However, in due time, non-members will begin totaling the equivalent of FedExCup points in pursuit of Special Temporary Membership. (The target remains 288.035 points. That's a holdover from the 2018-19 season because 2019-20 was compressed.) Non-members will include the top 10 in Korn Ferry Tour points at the conclusion of the KFT Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance as they will have exemptions into all additional events in 2020-21. All three-time winners on the combined 2020-21 KFT season also will earn an automatic promotion to the PGA TOUR and could qualify as a rookie. With so many moving parts, Rookie Ranking will demand attention, just in a different way. With the Monday finish of the TOUR Championship, my preview material for the Safeway Open will slide back a day. So, the Power Rankings will publish on Tuesday, as will the season primer referenced above. Sleepers, Expert Picks and the Fantasy Insider will publish on Wednesday. We'll return to the regular schedule in advance of the U.S. Open the following week. Speaking of primers, this is a great time to reacquaint yourself with the fantasy primer for the restart of this season. It published in early June, but it can serve as a bridge into next week's primer and should help with some direction for draft leaguers. Before all of that, of course, there's the little matter of settling fantasy league championships at East Lake. Round scoring in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf isn't influenced by the staggered start of the TOUR Championship, but the bonus points earned will be based on actual finish in the tournament, not by actual score over 72 holes. As I reminded gamers in this space two weeks ago and as the old One & Done determined values for the 2019 TOUR Championship, because no FedExCup points are up for grabs in the finale, bonus points in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf will follow the same breakdown used at THE NORTHERN TRUST and the BMW Championship. So, the winner will yield 150 bonus points as a starter for his owners in the final round. PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf My roster for the TOUR Championship (in alphabetical order): Bryson DeChambeau Dustin Johnson Jon Rahm Xander Schauffele Webb Simpson Justin Thomas You'll find my starters in Expert Picks. Others to consider for each category (in alphabetical order): Scoring: Daniel Berger; Tony Finau; Tyrrell Hatton; Scottie Scheffler Driving: Daniel Berger; Tyrrell Hatton; Hideki Matsuyama; Collin Morikawa; Scottie Scheffler RETURNING TO COMPETITION Martin Laird ... Scheduled to tee it up at the Korn Ferry Tour's Lincoln Land Championship presented by LRS. He was among the internationals who didn't return to the PGA TOUR this summer. Finished 182nd in the FedExCup, but he'll keep his fully exempt status due to the eligibility adjustments announced during the hiatus. Kelly Kraft ... Also committed to the KFT event in Springfield, Illinois. This constitutes his first sanctioned start since he underwent surgery on his left hip (labrum, impingement) on Sept. 26, 2019. When he returns to the PGA TOUR, he'll have a Major Medical Extension with a full season's slate of 23 starts. NOTABLE WDs None. POWER RANKINGS RECAP - BMW CHAMPIONSHIP Power Ranking Golfer Result 1 Dustin Johnson P2 2 Webb Simpson DNP 3 Justin Thomas T25 4 Jon Rahm Win 5 Bryson DeChambeau 50th 6 Daniel Berger T25 7 Collin Morikawa T20 8 Kevin Kisner T25 9 Harris English T40 10 Scottie Scheffler T20 11 Alex Noren T40 12 Xander Schauffele T25 13 Tony Finau 5th 14 Louis Oosthuizen T25 15 Jason Day 64th 16 Viktor Hovland T40 17 Hideki Matsuyama T3 18 Matt Kuchar T59 19 Russell Henley T25 20 Ryan Palmer T40 Wild Card Rory McIlroy T12 SLEEPERS RECAP - BMW CHAMPIONSHIP Golfer Result Corey Conners T33 Matthew Fitzpatrick T6 Mackenzie Hughes T10 Mark Hubbard T51 Matthew Wolff T16 BIRTHDAYS AMONG ACTIVE GOLFERS ON THE PGA TOUR September 1 ... Matthew Fitzpatrick (26) September 2 ... none September 3 ... none September 4 ... none September 5 ... none September 6 ... Brice Garnett (37) September 7 ... none September 8 ... none

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