Phil Mickelson issued an apology on Twitter on Tuesday in which the six-time major champion said he was sorry for recent comments he made about the PGA Tour and organizers of a Saudi-financed breakaway league.
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The network will celebrate one of sports’ most special weeks of the year with memories from Augusta National, including reliving Tiger Woods’ improbable 2019 victory.
With very little going on in terms of live sports, it stands to reason that the PGA TOUR has attracted new fans in the first two weeks after emerging from the three-month hiatus. Come Sunday, a few have to be wondering if only plaid jackets are awarded to the winners. Just like last week’s Charles Schwab Challenge, this week’s RBC Heritage was relocated to an unfamiliar month due to the pandemic. In recent history, it’s served as the exhale in the week after the Masters in April. This year, it not only is contested for the first time in June, it also assumes the original slot traditionally occupied by the U.S. Open and will finish on Father’s Day. As of midday Monday, the 153-man field at Harbour Town Golf Links includes 117 who competed at Colonial Country Club last week. For what it faces on the par 71 stretching just 7,099 yards, scroll past the projected contenders. POWER RANKINGS: RBC HERITAGE Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler, Hideki Matsuyama and defending champion C.T. Pan will be among the notables reviewed in Tuesday’s Fantasy Insider. In response to playing time missed as a result of the hiatus, 12 more spots were opened at the RBC Heritage. Customarily, it’s an invitational with 132 golfers, but even with the expansion to 144, the field is nine stronger than rescheduled. This is because all automatic qualifiers are allowed entry regardless of reserved space. Harbour Town will give the robust gathering all it wants. At just 3,700 square feet on average, greens are among the smallest everyone in the field will see all year. The biggest difference between April and June is that the putting surfaces no longer need to be overseeded. This will give the TifEagle bermudagrass planted in advance of the 2016 edition of the tournament the opportunity to really shine. Due to work done to reconfigure cart paths and trim trees, some fairways are wider, but finding the shortest grass off the tee isn’t necessarily the premium at Harbour Town. Not unlike the tee-to-green objective at Augusta National, placement for approach shots is key. That favors the thinking man and course management. Short of finding spot on the dartboards, including on each of the par 5s, shot-shaping under and around overhanging trees accentuates the challenge dimensionally. If the greens were larger, the approach game would have even greater value, but Harbour Town caters to the small ball. As all worthy courses yield so as to prove fairness, there have been exceptions, but the champion likely will have scrambled well, which is to say that he’s putted well. C.T. Pan slotted below the field average in fairways hit last year, and he was right at the field average in greens in regulation, but he was tidiest with his short game, slotting second in putts per GIR. He did hit it tight (seventh in proximity to the holes), but he also made the most of his modest opportunities by ranking fifth in par-breaker conversion percentage with the putter. He finished at 12-under 272 as the field averaged 71.170 for the week. The contingent that has played Harbour Town in April likely will feel more humidity this week. Daytime temperatures will climb into the 80s. A passing shower can’t be ruled out and wind probably won’t factor into club selection until Sunday, if at all. Incidentally, the last four who emerged victorious at the RBC Heritage were first-timers on the PGA TOUR. Wesley Bryan (2017) and Satoshi Kodaira (2018) were tournament debutants. The active streak matches the Barracuda Championship for runner-up honors behind the Sanderson Farms Championship where Sebastián Muñoz became the sixth consecutive first-time winner last fall. If you’re interested in more history of the RBC Heritage, please check out the all-time Power Rankings that published during the original week of this season’s edition. ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE PGATOUR.COM’s Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton recaps and previews every tournament from numerous angles. Look for his following contributions as scheduled. MONDAY: Rookie Ranking, Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Medical Extensions, Power Rankings TUESDAY*: Sleepers, Fantasy Insider * – Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, which also publishes on Tuesday.
RENO, Nev. — John Huh made plenty of putts in Thursday’s opening round of the Barracuda Championship. That leads to good results no matter how the score is kept. Huh needed just 24 putts at Montreux Golf and Country Club, the last from 6 feet for his eighth birdie to close with 15 points and a one-point lead over Stuart Appleby and Miguel Angel Carballo. “Twenty-four putts is always nice. That was the key to make a few birdies,” Huh said. “Hopefully, I can do it the next three days.” Appleby also had eight birdies against two bogeys, while Carballo made up ground with a pair of eagles, one in which he holed out from 160 yards on No. 17. This is the only PGA TOUR event that uses the modified Stableford format that awards five points for an eagle and three points for a birdie, while deducting one point for a bogey and three points for a double bogey or worse. Huh, who hasn’t won since the OHL Classic at Mayakoba as a rookie in 2012, tied for third the only other time he played the Barracuda Championship in 2014. The timing couldn’t be better. He is not in the PGA Championship next week, meaning he has only the Barracuda Championship and the Wyndham Championship in two weeks to finish inside the top 125 in the FedExCup and keep his TOUR card for next season. Huh currently is at No. 112. That’s a goal for eight of the top nine players on the leaderboard. Appleby and Carballo are outside the top 200. Six players were at 13 points, a group that included Ryan Palmer. He needs to win to get into the PGA Championship next week at Quail Hollow. The PGA is holding a spot for a player who wins at Montreux that is not already eligible. Carballo only had three birdies against two bogeys, but those two eagles were worth the equivalent of five birdies (10 points). After holing out from a greenside bunker for birdie on the 16th, he holed out from 160 yards on the next hole. Then after he missed the green at No. 1 from the fairway and made bogey, the Argentine ripped a 3-wood that couldn’t see it was close until he got up near the green and saw it 8 feet from the hole. “We were hoping for the best and it ended up being right next to the pin,” he said. Davis Love III, who celebrates the 20-year anniversary of his PGA Championship victory next week, had 11 points. His son, Dru Love, was at minus 4 points and toward the bottom of the pack.
