Mickelson’s bag: How it has changed since 2006 U.S. Open

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The PGA TOUR visits a classic venue, the Seth Raynor-designed Waialae Country Club, for this week's Sony Open in Hawaii. Several big names made the short trip from Honolulu to Maui after competing in last week's Sentry Tournament of Champions, while the majority of the field is making its first start of the calendar year. RELATED: Full tee times Below are some of the players to keep an eye on this week, including Sentry champion Harris English, the man he beat in a sudden-death playoff (Joaquin Niemann) and defending champion Cameron Smith. We've assembled our team of writers to answer a question about each Featured Group, as well. Enjoy. THURSDAY Collin Morikawa, Webb Simpson, Marc Leishman – Leishman is 37. Webb is 35. Collin is just 23. What will Collin's resume look like when he's 36? SEAN MARTIN: For reference, Dustin Johnson is 36 years old. He's also a generational talent. He has 24 wins, including two majors. Morikawa is already ahead of Johnson's pace - DJ didn't win a major until 2016 - but I think anything over 15 wins and two majors is a big success for Morikawa. That's a resume that will get in the World Golf Hall of Fame, after all. CAMERON MORFIT: Impossible to say, but Morikawa is such a special case because his mental game is as sharp as his iron play. I'm confident in saying he'll have at least 10 TOUR wins by then, and we'll see him representing the Stars and Stripes on multiple Ryder and Presidents Cup teams. Also, he's so good from tee to green, like Garcia, that I'm going to say Morikawa wins THE PLAYERS Championship somewhere in there, too. BEN EVERILL: Double digit TOUR wins is on his horizon and I wouldn't be surprised if he follows in Dustin Johnson's footsteps by way of winning at least once every season. I think he will be a major presence in the big tournaments and perhaps jag a few more but history shows you can be one of the best and still have the stars not align in those. Sergio Garcia, Joaquin Niemann, Hideki Matsuyama – Matsuyama tied for last at Kapalua. Niemann tied for first (before losing in a playoff). Matsuyama is 21st in the world ranking. Niemann is 31st. Who ends 2021 ranked higher? MARTIN: Niemann is trending in the right direction, with seven top-25s in his last nine starts, but I'm not selling Matsuyama yet. He and Niemann both tied for third at the BMW and Matsuyama also was runner-up at the recent Vivint Houston Open. It was an awful putting performance last week but I think his ball-striking is enough to keep him among the game's elite. MORFIT: Matsuyama is dangerous at the Sony, where he went 74-67-67-66 for T12 last year, but I'm going to have to go with Niemann based on their massive disparity on the greens. Matsuyama needs to figure something out with the putter; Niemann is already there. EVERILL: Man, this is a tough call. I'm all in on Niemann being a star and rising through the ranks but Hideki is usually so rock solid. I expect a bounce back from Matsuyama this week. Kapalua greens are not for him. And he has Phoenix coming up. So Hideki - but just. FRIDAY Carlos Ortiz, Sungjae Im, Cameron Smith – They're Nos. 16, 17 and eight in the FedExCup, respectively. Who finishes the season ranked highest? MARTIN: Sungjae Im. The Super Season means more opportunities for golf's iron man. He seems to have turned things around after struggling for a few months. He was T5 at the Sentry in addition to his runner-up at the Masters. MORFIT: Im looks like he could be lining up for a massive season, and I see he's No. 1 in this week's Power Rankings. Still, I'll go ahead and pick Ortiz here on the theory that he's streaky and dangerous once he's full of self-belief, as he was when he won three times in one season on the Korn Ferry Tour. EVERILL: Smith. This is certainly with some bias as Im is no doubt going to play more and have a chance at more points but I think Smith will shake off some of his mid-season lethargy this time around and finish high in some big events. He was runner-up at the Masters (along with Im), after all. Harris English, Adam Scott, Matt Kuchar – Who has more wins in the remainder of the season? English or Kuchar and Scott combined? MARTIN: English. To be honest, this win probably should have come sooner. His 11 top-10s since the start of last season are the third-most on TOUR (behind only Justin Thomas and Bryson DeChambeau). I expect another win out of him this season, while I'm not sure we can say the same about Scott and Kuchar. Scott's win at last year's Genesis was his first since 2016, and Kuchar has been winless in five of the last six seasons. MORFIT: English is going to have a big year, and I'll say he has more wins than those other two guys combined. In a way, he's riding a hot streak of two straight wins after his victory with Kuchar in the (unofficial) QBE Shootout. And I think it's very possible English will win the Sony, where he had three straight top-10 finishes from 2013-15. EVERILL: I rate English highly after seeing him close up last week but if the measure is from now on - I'll go with Scott/Kuchar. And by that I mean Adam Scott. I see Scotty winning again this season and while English is by all means capable, multiple-win seasons are hard to come by.

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This was to have been the week of the tournament for the Summer Olympics in Japan, but Justin Rose’s chance to defend the gold medal was tabled until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In its stead is an appropriate gathering for the aptly titled World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational. Seventy-eight golfers representing 19 countries from six continents will be competing in the traditional 72-hole, stroke-play competition. For just the second year, TPC Southwind will play host. There is no cut. For a review of how the familiar course challenged in its first spin for the WGC, what this week’s field should expect and more, scroll past the extended list of projected contenders. RELATED: Featured Groups | The First Look POWER RANKINGS: WGC-FEDEX ST. JUDE INVITATIONAL Tuesday’s Fantasy Insider will include reviews of defending champion Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Gary Woodland, Rickie Fowler, Marc Leishman, Henrik Stenson and other notables. In part to ensure proper depth for the tournament during this unprecedented time, the field for the WGC-St. Jude was increased to 78 during the hiatus. Coincidentally, 63 automatic qualifiers were committed as of midday Monday. That matches the field of last year’s pre-pandemic edition without the field-expanding initiative. Shugo Imahira, Francesco Molinari, Thomas Pieters, Justin Rose, Adam Scott, Lee Westwood and Tiger Woods all passed on spots for various reasons, so 15 golfers from outside the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking on July 20 gained entry in order of position. (A similar accommodation was introduced at the 2019 WGC-Mexico Championship so that its field was 72 deep.) In its debut as host of the WGC-St. Jude a year ago, TPC Southwind surrendered a scoring average of 69.504. It never scored that low as the site of the FedEx St. Jude Classic (1989-2018). It’s been a stock par 70 since 2005. As directly proportional to the bump in talent that the scoring average reflected, improvements in fairways hit, greens in regulation, average distance of putts made, putting: birdie-or-better percentage, par-4 scoring and par-5 scoring were noticeable. Although it yields low scores, TPC Southwind remains a complete test, which is to say that it reveals who’s on his game against the best competition. Distance off the tee is a bonus, not a prerequisite. New tees at the par-5 third hole and par-4 17th have stretched those holes by 25 and 15 yards, respectively, but overall length of TPC Southwind remains a gettable 7,277 yards. Those are not insignificant changes, but the bulk of what’s different this year are the bunkers. Each was renovated and/or moved for strategic defense purposes. Champion bermudagrass greens are dialed to roll 12 feet on the Stimpmeter. It’s the middle of the summer and this is warm and sticky Memphis, so rain and storms are all but guaranteed to impact any four-day event. The WGC-St. Jude is no exception as an elevated threat of inclement weather greets the field on Thursday. It tapers into the weekend, but it doesn’t disappear. Winds could be gusty with the greatest energy in the air. Whoever survives the elements and the broader field will earn 550 FedExCup points and a three-year PGA TOUR membership exemption. 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.

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