Monday Finish: Koepka, a dominant force in major championship golf

There have been numerous instances this year when I’ve been classified as, for lack of a better description, a defendant of FedExCup points as the preferred measurement in a One & Done. In fact, I’m a proponent of either points or earnings as long as you trust your platform and commissioner. But obviously, since PGA TOUR Fantasy One & Done presented by SERVPRO uses only FedExCup points to measure performance, it’s the game at PGATOUR.COM and I’m the fantasy columnist for the website, well, all one needs to do is connect the dots to understand my primary position. However, what may have been overlooked in my full-membership fantasy ranking before the season or simply gone unknown to anyone resisting shifting to FedExCup points is that earnings will no longer be used to determine PGA TOUR status beginning in 2017-18. Of course, prize money will be tracked and distributed despite the elimination of its influence, but the evolution away from it should generate philosophical conversation in your private league about why you’d continue to use it as your measurement. Purists will acknowledge that earnings was used in the first place because it once was the only statistic that determined PGA TOUR status. So, if you continue to use earnings, you’ll be using a measurement that no longer has relevance in reality. All of that may come across as propaganda from a soapbox, but I assure you that it is not, for this is the week when I’d love to be banking earnings instead of FedExCup points. The U.S. Open at Erin Hills boasts a record purse of $12 million. The winner will received $2.16 million (the usual cut of 18 percent). If you’re in an earnings-based league, it likely has a couple of bottom-feeders gone dormant who haven’t even totaled what the 117th champion of the season’s second major will be depositing into his account. Money leagues have three monsters from which to choose. In this order, defending champion Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy and Jason Day present the strongest offense in the context of your objective. They are the most dynamic fits for Erin Hills who are already proven. If none is available to you, you should have planned better for the potential windfall, but given how the first five months of 2017 unraveled for both McIlroy and Day, the odds are pretty good that at least one is at your disposal. If you play PGA TOUR Fantasy One & Done presented by SERVPRO, then you understand that its selection process requires finesse. Since the Playoffs essentially quadruple FedExCup points earned, anchoring your season as I am – McIlroy-Day-DJ, in that order – is a strategy rich in insurance all the while you position yourself to accumulate what you can along the way. This is why I’m pushing Rickie Fowler out there at the U.S. Open. The winner will receive 600 FedExCup points. By comparison, a three-way T3 in a Playoffs event is worth 580 points, which means there’s a margin of error for the big boys in that series. Fowler will resonate as a short-lister again only at the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational, but with no cut and another deep field at our fingertips in that event, he’s worth the plunge now. I wouldn’t pretend to steer you away from the trio for whom the case is open-and-shut for money leaguers, but have a plan for the Playoffs regardless of your decision. The next tier for PGA TOUR Fantasy One & Done presented by SERVPRO gamers includes, in no particular order this time, Justin Thomas, Justin Rose, Martin Kaymer, Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel and Adam Scott. You could get away in abstaining from Sergio Garcia, Jon Rahm, Hideki Matsuyama, Kevin Kisner and Jason Dufner, but I’d still circle Rahm or Dufner if either is available and you’re in a pinch. Jordan Spieth is the really interesting piece on the board. A top 10 is all but a given, but we expect a top five from him with the opportunity to pick off a win. As a scorer on a par 72 with room to spray it a bit off the tee, there’s really nothing not to love about his fit. That’s multiplied since he’s regained form since going back to his old putter. If I didn’t burn him at the Masters (with similar thinking, not to mention his phenomenal record at Augusta National), he’d be my guy at Erin Hills. While the field is sprinkled with value all over the place, two-man gamers should focus on an international non-member as the tail of your tandem. Consider Thomas Pieters, Lee Westwood or Ross Fisher. Shane Lowry is a PGA TOUR member, but go ahead and toss him into the mix. Then again, Steve Stricker is likely available. You’d be the envy of every one-man gamer who won’t have the temerity to pull the trigger or tug on the heartstrings. NOTE: Since it’s possible that Phil Mickelson will withdraw before his tee time in the opening round, the timing has never been better to remind you that if any golfer you’ve rostered in any of the fantasy games WDs before his tee time in an opening round and you don’t replace him, he will remain available to you in either One & Done and you won’t be charged a start in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO. FUTURE POSSIBILITIES NOTE: Select golfers committed to the tournament are listed alphabetically. Future tournaments are sorted chronologically and reflect previous success on the courses on which the tournaments will be held in 2016-17. All are pending golfer commitment. Keegan Bradley … WGC-Bridgestone; Dell Technologies Paul Casey … Travelers; WGC-Bridgestone; TOUR Championship Kevin Chappell … Dell Technologies Jason Day … U.S. Open; Canadian; WGC-Bridgestone; PGA Championship; Dell Technologies; TOUR Championship Jason Dufner … U.S. Open; TOUR Championship Rickie Fowler … WGC-Bridgestone Jim Furyk … U.S. Open; Canadian; WGC-Bridgestone; TOUR Championship Sergio Garcia … Open Championship; TOUR Championship Branden Grace … U.S. Open; WGC-Bridgestone; PGA Championship Bill Haas … Wyndham Charley Hoffman … Travelers; Canadian Billy Horschel … TOUR Championship Dustin Johnson … U.S. Open (defending); Canadian; TOUR Championship Zach Johnson … John Deere; Open Championship; WGC-Bridgestone; TOUR Championship Kevin Kisner … Wyndham Russell Knox … Travelers (defending); Dell Technologies Brooks Koepka … U.S. Open; PGA Championship Matt Kuchar … Canadian; WGC-Bridgestone Martin Laird … Barracuda Marc Leishman … Travelers; Open Championship Hideki Matsuyama … PGA Championship; BMW Graeme McDowell … Open Championship; WGC-Bridgestone; Wyndham William McGirt … Wyndham Rory McIlroy … WGC-Bridgestone; PGA Championship; Dell Technologies (defending); TOUR Championship (defending) Kevin Na … John Deere; Wyndham Louis Oosthuizen … Dell Technologies Scott Piercy … John Deere; BMW Patrick Reed … Wyndham; Dell Technologies Justin Rose … Open Championship; WGC-Bridgestone; PGA Championship; TOUR Championship Charl Schwartzel … U.S. Open; Open Championship; WGC-Bridgestone Adam Scott … U.S. Open; Open Championship; WGC-Bridgestone; Dell Technologies; TOUR Championship Webb Simpson … Greenbrier; Wyndham Brandt Snedeker … U.S. Open; Travelers; Canadian; Wyndham Jordan Spieth … John Deere; WGC-Bridgestone; PGA Championship; TOUR Championship Brendan Steele … Travelers; Barracuda (already eligible for concurrent WGC-Bridgestone) Henrik Stenson … Open Championship (defending); WGC-Bridgestone; PGA Championship; Dell Technologies; TOUR Championship Jimmy Walker … Greenbrier; PGA Championship (defending); Dell Technologies Bubba Watson … Travelers; Greenbrier; WGC-Bridgestone; TOUR Championship Gary Woodland … Barracuda; PGA Championship; Dell Technologies; TOUR Championship

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Editor’s note: In a non-coronavirus world, Bill Self might have been coaching in Monday’s NCAA championship final while Gary Woodland definitely would’ve been prepping for his eighth Masters start. But with March Madness canceled and the Masters postponed, both are now staying at home like the rest of us. Helen Ross reports on the unique connection between the Jayhawks head coach and the former Kansas golfer. The Waste Management Phoenix Open earlier this year admittedly wasn’t one of Gary Woodland’s best. Over the course of four rounds, he hit seven balls in the water and another landed out-of-bounds. A day after the tournament concluded, though, Woodland was in Allen Fieldhouse to watch his beloved Kansas Jayhawks take on Texas. That tie for 40th at TPC Scottsdale was the last thing on his mind. That is, until he ran into Kansas coach Bill Self, who couldn’t resist reminding Woodland of all the errant shots. “He knows everything I do,â€� the reigning U.S. Open champion says with a chuckle. “He’s on ShotTracker every day. So, if I’m messing up, there’s usually a text coming my way. … I flew home the next day for a basketball game and that’s the first thing he says. “So he keeps up on me. He’s hard on me, so I need to make sure I play well, so I don’t hear from him.â€� Actually, Woodland enjoys hearing from Self, who left Illinois and took over the Kansas program in 2003, which the same year Woodland transferred and started playing golf for the Jayhawks. If he’d had his druthers, though, Woodland would have loved to play basketball at KU. And he did. Once. Only, it was an exhibition game at Allen Fieldhouse and Woodland, a freshman, was playing for NCAA Division II powerhouse Washburn University. Suffice it to say, the Ichabods were no match for the Jayhawks, who were ranked No. 1 in the country at the time. Ditto for the 6-foot-1 Woodland, who was guarding Kirk Hinrich, who went on to play 15 seasons in the NBA. “(It was) like, OK, I need to find something else, because this ain’t gonna work,â€� recalls Woodland, who went on to average 6 points and make 38 of 120 shots from three-point range that season. Golf was the fallback plan. When he was an undergrad, Woodland used to see Self around campus and remembers being somewhat intimidated. “Especially when I was in school, you see him walking down the hallway, you kind of say ‘Hi,’ and put your head down and move on,â€� Woodland says. “But he’s such a down-to-earth guy. He’s such a good guy and loves to have a good time, loves to talk. “And so now that I know him, he’s a text message or phone call away all the time.â€� The friendship blossomed when the two ran into each other at a movie theater shortly after Woodland, who remains a die-hard Jayhawk fan, graduated in 2007 with a degree in sociology. “He said, ‘Hey, I want to play golf with you before you leave town,’â€� Woodland recalls. “So, that was really the first conversation I really ever had with them. We went out and played golf together and we became good friends since then. “He’s been a great person for me, too, if I need advice. He’s somebody I can call, and he tells me how it is. He treats me, I would say, like one of his players, no sugar-coating anything. So, he’s a good person to have.â€� For his part, Self – whose Jayhawks were ranked No. 1 when the NCAA canceled this year’s tournament due to the coronavirus pandemic — says he’s enjoyed watching the way Woodland’s golf game has evolved. “I don’t know enough about golf to text specifics,â€� Self says. “I’m following because he can be two different players to me. He can be unbelievably consistent where he’s making a ton of pars. And then when he gets hot, he can make as many birdies as anybody. “But with that, he can also have as many doubles as anybody, too. So, he used to just hit it a mile, and now that he doesn’t hit it quite as far, he’s certainly scoring better because he’s hitting more greens because he’s playing out of the fairway more.â€� Self, who says he is about a 10 handicap, has been playing golf since he was in junior high school. Ball-striking used to be the best part of his game, but the coach says he isn’t sure what his strength is any more. “He’s actually pretty good.,â€� Woodland says. “He’s getting better. He hits it a long way. He’s not as good as he thinks he is, but he loves it. He has a great time. It’s a little hard, he’s got so many camps during the summer, but we definitely sneak out every year, which is fun.â€� And when the two play, Woodland gives Self a stroke a hole. “But he thinks he’s a lot better than that,â€� Woodland says with a grin. “I just do it just to be nice.â€� “I’m not competitive with him at all,â€� Self acknowledges. “I’m a competitor, I’m competitive, but not with him. And that’s a whole different level.â€� The Kansas coach is well- aware of Woodland’s basketball past, though. He was all-state in high school and a member of two state championship teams. Long-range shooting was one of Woodland’s fortes. Not that the 35-year-old golfer and the 57-year-old coach will be playing a game of H-O-R-S-E any time soon. “I do know he can shoot but at my age, I gave up playing pickup 15 years ago,â€� Self says.

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In many ways, Riley is your typical boy. Spunky. Spontaneous. Ready for anything, like catching lizards and frogs or jumping on the trampoline. So, when the 18-month-old started being a little “fussy,” his mom, Taylor Raney, says she thought he was just having one of his “moments.” And the bruises? Well, what kid doesn’t fall down or bump into something? When Riley started running a fever of 103 degrees, though, Taylor took him to a doctor who prescribed antibiotics for an ear infection. When the symptoms persisted five days later, she went to another physician, who thankfully decided to run some blood work. “I knew that 78,000 white blood cells was not normal,” recalls Taylor, who was studying to be a nurse. Within a day, Riley had been admitted to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. He had Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL), the most common form of childhood cancer. Riley’s grandmother, Kim Raney, remembers six doctors walking into the room to deliver the news. “I thought my heart was going to hit the ground,” says Kim, who has worked at FedEx for 33 years. “ … And then that doctor smiled at his mama and … I’m here to tell you that you will see your son’s children.” Not that the next two-and-a-half years were easy. Riley had infusions of chemotherapy at St. Jude. He also took a cocktail of drug by mouth. “We had a pharmacy on our counter basically,” Taylor recalls. There were setbacks, too; infections and fevers that sent him back to the hospital. The family nearly spent one Christmas there. But Riley is now a cancer survivor, over a year removed from his last chemotherapy treatment that brought the nurses and doctors into his room at St. Jude to sing to him and throw confetti into the air. They all signed a “No More Chemo” poster, too. On Wednesday morning during the FedEx St. Jude Championship, Riley will be the focus of another celebration, one that marks the 10th anniversary of the Purple Eagle Program. FedEx started the program to honor a St. Jude patient who is also the child or relative of one of the more than 600,000 employees of the global express transportation company. Riley is this year’s honoree, and his name has been placed under the pilot’s window on a Cessna Caravan turbojet just like the ones that FedEx uses to fly packages to smaller towns in the United States, Canada, Europe and Latin America. The plane, which was transported wingless through Memphis on I-240 and reassembled on the grounds of TPC Southwind is on display where the first event in the FedExCup Playoffs is being contested this week. All nine previous Purple Eagle recipients will be on hand as the rambunctious Riley, who enters kindergarten this year, unveils his logo. Taylor said the recognition almost validates the struggles her family of five endured. She and her husband Brennan have an older son, Brantley, who has Crohn’s disease, while the youngest, Finley, was just three weeks old when Riley was diagnosed. “I feel like that it’s extremely awesome for the company to do something like this,” Taylor said. “Not only are you honoring someone from St. Jude that’s been through a lot, but you’re also honoring your own employee who has made a huge career with you guys. I think that says a lot about your company.” The Purple Eagle program is the brainchild of Bill West Jr., the vice president of supplemental aircraft operations at FedEx Express and a 38-year employee of the company. He’d seen the delivery trucks on display at the tournament each year, and he thought having one of FedEx’s smaller delivery planes would be even more impactful. “Then the idea took root, I guess, as a way to further connect with the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and bring more awareness to the life-saving work that it does,” West said. “… And the dedication event is now 10 years strong, as we’re calling it. “And with all the 10 honorees returning for this anniversary event, it is just miraculous.” Riley is in remission now, and his family can take heart in the knowledge that about 90% of the children with ALL are cured, according to the St. Jude website. But some of the past Purple Eagle honorees, like 23-year-old Allie Allen, whose plane was dedicated in 2014, are still battling. She was 14 when she started having focal seizures. Allie said it was like she “spaced out” for a minute. She could hear and see everything, but she just couldn’t react. An EEG revealed seizure activity on the right side of her brain, and MRI showed a tumor the size of a golf ball. Doctors thought it was benign due to the circular shape, so the eighth-grader went with her dance team to a national competition, which they won. She returned to the reality of an eight-hour surgery and the news that the tumor was cancerous. She had 33 rounds of brain radiation at St. Jude before returning to high school. Three months later, she got another bad scan. “This time my whole brain lit up and there were only certain spots that were operable,” Allie said. Doctors told her she would not survive the assault and suggested she do the things on her bucket list while they considered treatment options. So, Allie and her family went to Disney World. When she returned and had another scan, her brain was completely clean. She says her doctors still can’t explain it. Her neurologist came to see her, crying, because it’s such a miracle that happened, Allie says. “Have you ever been to St. Jude before,” asks Allie who hopes to work in fundraising for the American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities that support St. Jude. “I like to call it the Disney World of hospitals because it’s such a different atmosphere. It’s honestly amazing. They have this thing called the Alphabet Wall and it’s the ABCs of cancer that each patient writes their own letter, and my letter was letter for miracle. “It’s still up there.” But when Allie was 15, she was diagnosed with another brain tumor. Surgery followed, along with another 33 rounds of full brain and spine radiation. She lost her ability to walk and eat for a time. Doctors told her she probably wouldn’t be alive for her high school graduation. “I just graduated college,” says the Ole Miss alum proudly. “So, it truly is a miracle that I’m still here today and I’m getting married in December, too. I’m hitting all these big milestones that nobody ever thought I would be alive for.” Her fiancée is Parker Fleming, and as luck would have it, he happens to work in the IT department at FedEx. Allie still has a small tumor in her brain, as well as a cyst right next to it. There has been minimal growth for the past five or six years, though, and the doctors at St. Jude are in what she calls a “watch and waiting process.” She still has digestive issues from where the radiation burned through her stomach and suffers from alopecia that has nothing to do with the cancer. While treating Allie, the doctors at St. Jude have identified five new types of brain cancer. She is one of seven people in the world with hers, which they call a high grade neuroepithelial tumor MN1. There is no treatment yet, but the phenomenal St. Jude researchers are working to find one just as they follow Riley’s progress every year. Allie remembers feeling like a princess the day her plane was dedicated. Her father, who is a pilot at FedEx, was the one who got to tell her she was going to be a Purple Eagle honoree. “I was so excited,” she says. “… I love going every year and meeting all the new patients who are blessed to have their name on a plane as well, but also the fact that all of us are still alive is amazing.” Riley’s grandmother, the woman he calls Maw-Maw, started working at FedEx in the mail room, then moved to accounts receivable and later worked as a courier for 25 years. She now works as a dispatcher for FedEx’s massive fleet of delivery trucks. Kim was still learning the ropes of her most recent position when Riley got sick. She got the news he was headed to St. Jude at 10 p.m. on a Friday. One of her co-workers told her he’d cover her shift the next day. Her supervisor told her to go and be with her family and take as long as she needed. “I couldn’t have done it without my co-workers – that’s a fact,” says Kim, who, along with her husband, Dale, took care of Riley’s brothers while he was in the hospital. One of those co-workers encouraged Kim to submit an application for the Purple Eagle program. Her granddaughter, Maya, who has sickle cell disease, was the 2018 recipient. So, Kim filled out the form but promptly forgot about it until West came to a meeting to give her the news. “I just sat there because it went straight over my head,” Kim says. “I mean, everybody was looking at me, like how can you not be jumping up and down. … And I looked at my coworker and I said, did he just say, Riley? She said, Kim, yes, he did, and everybody started laughing.” Like her daughter-in-law, Kim was overwhelmed by the caring people at St. Jude, as well as its positive atmosphere. She said the first time she went to the hospital “it was like, oh my God. I felt like I was at home. I can’t explain it, … “You almost felt guilty from all the kindness,” Kim says, thinking about the homemade masks and blankets, even the food vouchers for the family which was never billed for Riley’s treatment. “You’re just kind of like, what can I do to pay y’all back?” The way Kim sees it, FedEx and St. Jude is a match made in heaven. “These are two of the world-renowned names,” she says. “People from all over the world come to St. Jude. But then what people don’t realize — and I’ve learned this from being a courier and being in dispatch now with trucks — people don’t realize what FedEx does for the world. “From medical supplies all over the world, the trucks that we take all over the United States for relief from hurricanes, tornadoes or fires, the truckloads of medical supplies that we send and the airplanes that we charter to fly stuff all over the world. “St. Jude and FedEx — that can’t be a better partnership.” West is thrilled to see how the Purple Eagle program has endured. He loves getting to know the recipients, and one of his favorite memories is of the first honoree, McKaylee. She had a rare and malignant brain tumor and wasn’t expected to live past 5 but she’s now 15 years old. Fredrick Smith, the founder of FedEx, was among those in attendance at the dedication that year. “She jumped up in his arms and said, ‘Thank you for my airplane,’” West remembers. That just about says it all, doesn’t it? FedEx Purple Eagle recipients For more infomation on FedEx Purple Eagle recipients click here.

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