Matthew Wolff shoots 64 to take Rocket Mortgage Classic lead

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The early narrative at the Valspar Championship has been rooted in the quality of the 144-man field. In other words, it’s the best conglomeration of talent ever gathered in Palm Harbor, Florida. Whether that’s true, anecdotally or even empirically, those committed are guaranteed to be challenged in every facet of the game. And that’s the point. Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club’s Copperhead Course presents a marvelously un-Florida-like test northwest of Tampa Bay. Replete with tree-lined fairways and elevation change, this is the third edition post-renovation, so how it stacks up against this field at this time should be logged as a benchmark in course and tournament history. It’s his first look at the redesign, but he’s fared well everywhere. T37 at Chapultepec ended top-25 streak, but he closed with 67. He went 8-for-8 at Copperhead with five top 20s from 2004-2014.   T14 at WGC-Mexico was fifth top 20 of 2018, but he lost strokes to the field in putting for the fourth time in six starts. Won the Valspar in 2015 and placed T18 in 2016.   Finau closed out his fifth-place finish here last year with a 64, lowest by anyone post-cut. Led field in fairways hit, strokes gained: off-the-tee and strokes gained: tee-to-green; T2 in GIR. Sergio hasn’t played Copperhead since a personal-best T7 in 2013, but he’s 5-for-5 overall. He regained traction with a T7 at Chapultepec where he was firing on all cylinders.   Rested since a forgettable T60 in Malaysia a month ago. He opened 2018 with a solo eighth in Abu Dhabi and a T6 in Dubai. Since his Copperhead debut, he’s gone 4th-T11-T7. There’s always a learning curve for first-time defending champions, but he strides in with consistently strong form on which he can rely: T6 at Riviera and T9 at Chapultepec. Casey returns to Copperhead after a three-year hiatus. His well-balanced attack should thrive once again. T12 at Chapultepec was his 16th top-15 finish in his last 21 starts worldwide.   The horse for many courses built that reputation in part at Copperhead. Five top 20s in 11 appearances, including in each of the last three (5th-3rd-T18). He finished T9 at Riviera three weeks ago. He led WGC-Mexico with an opening 64, but faded to T30 after failing to break par the rest of the way. Still, his propensity to stripe it has value at Copperhead (T7 in 2016). Kuchar is in a relative rut but loves himself tough, tight tracks like Copperhead. Since 2009, he’s 7-for-7 with four top 15s, a T22 (2017) and a scoring average of 70.32. He is built for Copperhead. The winner on the first edition of the redesign finished in sixth place in last year’s title defense. He’s averaged 69.00 during his eight rounds on it. Nine top 20s in his last 10 starts worldwide, including a T6 in his last at Riviera. He ranks 17th in adjusted scoring, fourth in scrambling and sixth in the all-around.   No surprise that he’s now a winner on the PGA TOUR Champions, but his poise and temperament has played well at Copperhead, too. He tied for seventh here in 2016.   The renown ball-striper is perfect in the last nine editions of the Valspar. Seven trips resulted in a top 25, including each of last six. His putting is coming back to Earth. Playoff victim at PGA National possesses the substance that his strength complements. He has five top 20s already this season, and finished T27 at Copperhead last year with three red numbers. RANK PLAYER COMMENT POWER RANKINGS: VALSPAR CHAMPIONSHIP Tuesday’s Fantasy Insider will include Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Adam Scott, Bill Haas and other notables. In the two editions since the tight fairways were transitioned to Celebration bermudagrass and the 6,100-square-foot greens to TifEagle bermuda, landing areas at Copperhead have been harder to find. After years of yielding splits north of 60 percent, both driving accuracy (13th on TOUR in 2016 and 20th in 2017) and greens in regulation (third and eighth, respectively) have fallen below that threshold. If there’s a tradeoff, it’s that average distance of all drives is up marginally, but last year’s clip of 273.6 yards was still the fourth-shortest of 38 measured courses all season. Still, entrants won’t find fairer targets anywhere else, but even when last year’s field recorded a par breaker in 26.45 percent of chances created. That still ranked 11th-lowest of the season. The par 36-35=71 can stretch to 7,340 yards and it still boasts four par 5s — there are five par 3s — so capitalizing on the quartet is key, but Copperhead also is significantly about managing misses. Because converting on limited scoring opportunities carries lower expectations, salvaging par to sustain solid rounds is the connective tissue to contend. En route to his breakthrough victory last year, Adam Hadwin didn’t crack the top 25 in either distance off the tee or fairways hit, but he ranked T5 in greens in regulation, fifth in proximity to the hole and led the field in birdies-or-better percentage while putting. Despite that high level of consistency, the difference baked into his one-stroke margin was ranking seventh in scrambling and T3 in bogey avoidance. In fact, it’s no coincidence that six of the top 10 on the leaderboard finished inside the top 10 in bogey avoidance for the tournament. Of the same sample size, half landed inside the top 10 in scrambling. With rough as long as three inches and greens threatening 12 feet on the Stimpmeter, feel is paramount. Hanging on is the objective late what with Nos. 16, 17 and 18 comprising The Snake Pit. The par 4-3-4 is more slog than sprint home. Each of the three holes has averaged over par in every edition in tournament history. Last year, they combined for an average of +0.472 strokes. Hadwin navigated the stretch in even-par last year. Weather is going to play a role that will likely recur this week. The tournament will open with winds gusting more than 20 mph. Friday’s elements are forecasted to be the best, and easily at that. Saturday could be a mixed bag as winds will freshen and the threat of rain is introduced. The final round includes all of these factors and with an increase in the chance for storms with what might be the windiest day of the event. ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE PGATOUR.COM’s Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton will be filing his usual staples leading up to this week’s event. Look for the following columns this week. MONDAY: Rookie Ranking, Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Medical Extensions, Power Rankings TUESDAY*: Sleepers, Fantasy Insider, Facebook Live WEDNESDAY: One & Done THURSDAY: Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Champions One & Done * – Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO, which also publishes on Tuesdays.  

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SAN DIEGO (AP) — Sebastian Cappelen (South Course) and Keegan Bradley (North Course) shot 66s on their respective courses at Torrey Pines Golf Club to share the opening-round lead at the Farmers Insurance Open. Cappelen, a rookie from Denmark, was doing his own thing away from the crowd, narrowly dodging the fog that rolled in late in the afternoon, and he was doing it well. “I never really put me in a terrible spot where I couldn’t make par,” he said. Tiger Woods had his lowest opening round of the year since 2011. It wasn’t enough to be among the leaders Thursday, but it was fine with him. Coming off his record-tying 82nd victory in his last PGA TOUR start three months ago in Japan, Tiger Woods handled the par 5s on the easier North Course at Torrey Pines and limited mistakes for a 3-under 69. Rory McIlroy, who played in the group in front of Woods, was among those at 67. Jon Rahm, playing alongside Woods, was in the large group at 68. Related: Leaderboard | Featured Groups, tee times | Insider: When will Tiger win No. 83? Woods hasn’t broken 70 in his first round of the year since a 69 on the North at Torrey in 2011. His health, his game and even his momentum are in much better shape now. His game wasn’t all that far off. “It was nice to kind of keep the round going a little bit,” Woods said. “Overall, pleased to shoot something in the 60s today.” It took a little time to get going. He left himself in a bad shot right of the green on the par-5 10th to start his round and failed to make birdie. His flop shot from 50 yards short of the green on the next hole came up short and into a bunker, leading to a bogey. He was even par at the turn on a course where lower scores are expected. Even so, there was little drama. The best views were of the still waters of the Pacific below on a magnificent day. The biggest roars, as usual, belonged to the Navy jets above. Woods kept it simple, with a nifty wedge to short range on his 10th hole, a two-putt birdie from 18 feet on the par-5 fifth and an easy up-and-down for birdie on the final hole. “I could probably, maybe could have gotten one or two more out of my round today,” Woods said. “But overall, I felt like it was a good start, especially going into the South Course. I don’t know what the guys did on the South Course in relation to the North, but I felt like the golf course was certainly gettable today.” Bubba Watson had a 67 on the South, while three other players broke 70 on the South, which hosted the U.S. Open in 2008 and gets another U.S. Open next year. Woods has won this event seven times, not including his 2008 U.S. Open title or the Junior World when he was a teenager. At stake this week is a chance to set the PGA TOUR career victories record with No. 83 on the first course where his father took him to watch a PGA TOUR event. Rahm, who got married in Spain before Christmas and has another wedding in San Diego next month for his bride’s American family and friends, was 4 under through eight holes until he stalled. Along for the ride was Collin Morikawa, who wasn’t even born when Woods made his pro debut. The 22-year-old Morikawa shot 70. “I had to tell to tell myself to just focus on golf after that first hole because I could just focus on Tiger and watch him the entire day and realize I forgot how to play golf,” Morikawa said. “And that’s what I’m out here to do, I’m out here to win. It’s really cool to play with him finally and to get a round in with him because crowds are different. “There’s just nothing like it. You can’t describe it.” McIlroy, who has never won in his first event of the year, can return to No. 1 in the world for the first time in more than four years by winning. He also handled the par 5s by making birdie on all of them, along with adding three birdies. McIlroy has a new driver in play, which didn’t feel right to him during the pro-am. He spent Wednesday afternoon making some adjustments and seemed to be on track. “It’s funny, you go through that testing process at the start of the year with new equipment. There’s things that seem really good on the range, but once you actually play some rounds with them competitively and try to hit certain shots, things sort of appear,” McIlroy said. “We seemed to have fixed it.”

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