Monday Qualifiers: Houston Open

Pick any year and Sergio Garcia is an automatic call at THE PLAYERS where he’s a former champion and the tournament’s all-time earnings leader. However, when he poured in the putt in the playoff to win the Masters, it was immediately fair to ponder if you’d be picking up the phone this week at TPC Sawgrass. One & Doners are famously – infamously? – prone to overthink and overreact with the first ripple or success or failure. At times, it’s absolutely warranted, but this isn’t one of those times. The Spaniard checks all of the boxes. Possibly overlooked in the accomplishment of his coronation in a major is that it was also the culmination of phenomenal form going back to as long as you’d like. With that victory, you can’t argue that he’s in the best form of his life. And then there’s the obvious fact that he’s not an upstart in whom we might expect regression. The Masters also wasn’t last week. It was a month ago. He celebrated, basked and separated. In the process, he was able to turn the page normally. A man in complete control. Within the context of our game, THE PLAYERS is also the most likely event at which we’re comfortable burning Garcia, well, it and The Open Championship. This is due in part to his success in both events, but equally so as defense to the crapshoot that often unravels in each. The risk managers among you might say that we’re OK in losing Garcia in a tournament where he’s most likely to prosper. Among the other short-listers in Future Possibilities below, Martin Kaymer and Francesco Molinari capture my attention the most. I’ve already burned both, so even though I’m settling with a push with our league leader, my decision to plug in Garcia was as easy as it gets. However, with no other attractive sites at which to consider the other two internationals, both have my blessing this week. Justin Thomas and Lee Westwood are the other two without a no-brainer kind of joint to line up later. Thomas’ limited expectations are in direct correlation to his limited experience. He’s in just his third season with a PGA TOUR card. Meanwhile, the veteran Englishman is a non-member well into the back half of his career. As a result, he presents perfectly as a secondary pick in a two-man game. If you’re in a two-man format and can’t or choose not to manufacture a team consisting of any of the aforementioned, also consider Jason Dufner, Kyle Stanley and Graham DeLaet, all of whom are among my Sleepers. Rory McIlroy’s signing with TaylorMade is worth pause in every fantasy format, but One & Doners were unaffected. While he’s atop my Power Rankings, the risk of burning him at TPC Sawgrass isn’t worth it even though the tournament distributes FedExCup points equivalent to every major. There’s also the obvious factor that he’s the kind of juggernaut who is worth reserving for the Playoffs when points are quadrupled. (I’m reserving McIlroy for the Dell Technologies Championship.) 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. Daniel Berger … St. Jude (defending) Jason Bohn … Greenbrier Keegan Bradley … Byron Nelson; Memorial; WGC-Bridgestone; Dell Technologies Paul Casey … Travelers; WGC-Bridgestone; TOUR Championship Kevin Chappell … Dell Technologies Jason Day … PLAYERS (defending); U.S. Open; Canadian; WGC-Bridgestone; PGA Championship; Dell Technologies; TOUR Championship Luke Donald … Wyndham; TOUR Championship Jason Dufner … Byron Nelson; DEAN & DELUCA; U.S. Open; TOUR Championship Harris English … DEAN & DELUCA Jim Furyk … Memorial; U.S. Open; Canadian; WGC-Bridgestone; TOUR Championship Sergio Garcia … PLAYERS; Byron Nelson (defending); Open Championship; TOUR Championship Branden Grace … U.S. Open; WGC-Bridgestone; PGA Championship Bill Haas … Wyndham Charley Hoffman … Byron Nelson; DEAN & DELUCA; Travelers; Canadian Billy Horschel … St. Jude; TOUR Championship Dustin Johnson … Byron Nelson; Memorial; St. Jude; U.S. Open (defending); Canadian; TOUR Championship Zach Johnson … PLAYERS; DEAN & DELUCA; John Deere; Open Championship; WGC-Bridgestone; TOUR Championship Martin Kaymer … PLAYERS Chris Kirk … DEAN & DELUCA Kevin Kisner … PLAYERS; DEAN & DELUCA; Wyndham Russell Knox … Travelers (defending); Dell Technologies Brooks Koepka … Byron Nelson; St. Jude; U.S. Open; PGA Championship Matt Kuchar … PLAYERS; Byron Nelson; DEAN & DELUCA; Memorial; Canadian; WGC-Bridgestone Martin Laird … Barracuda Marc Leishman … DEAN & DELUCA; Memorial; Travelers; Open Championship Hideki Matsuyama … PLAYERS; Memorial; PGA Championship; BMW Graeme McDowell … Open Championship; WGC-Bridgestone; Wyndham William McGirt … Memorial (defending); Wyndham Rory McIlroy … PLAYERS; Memorial; WGC-Bridgestone; PGA Championship; Dell Technologies (defending); TOUR Championship (defending) Phil Mickelson … St. Jude; Open Championship; PGA Championship Francesco Molinari … PLAYERS Ryan Moore … Travelers; John Deere (defending); TOUR Championship Kevin Na … Memorial; John Deere; Wyndham Louis Oosthuizen … Dell Technologies Ryan Palmer … Byron Nelson; DEAN & DELUCA; St. Jude Scott Piercy … John Deere; BMW Ian Poulter … Arnold Palmer; Puerto Rico Patrick Reed … Wyndham; Dell Technologies Justin Rose … PLAYERS; Memorial; Open Championship; WGC-Bridgestone; PGA Championship; TOUR Championship Charl Schwartzel … Memorial; U.S. Open; Open Championship; WGC-Bridgestone Adam Scott … Memorial; U.S. Open; Open Championship; WGC-Bridgestone; Dell Technologies; TOUR Championship Webb Simpson … Greenbrier; Wyndham Jordan Spieth … DEAN & DELUCA (defending); 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 Kevin Streelman … Memorial Justin Thomas … PLAYERS David Toms … PLAYERS; DEAN & DELUCA; Barbasol; Barracuda Jimmy Walker … Greenbrier; PGA Championship (defending); Dell Technologies Bubba Watson … Travelers; Greenbrier; WGC-Bridgestone; TOUR Championship Boo Weekley … St. Jude; Barbasol Lee Westwood … PLAYERS Gary Woodland … Byron Nelson; Barracuda; PGA Championship; Dell Technologies; TOUR Championship

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DALLAS – Sung Kang was in his mid-teens when he first came to Dallas from his native South Korea. His dad sent him to the area in the winter and summer stretches to hone his golf skills. Then in 2011, in his rookie year on the PGA TOUR, Kang moved permanently to North Texas, setting up shop in the suburb of Coppell, near the airport. On Friday, prior to the start of his second round at the AT&T Byron Nelson, the 31-year-old woke up to conditions he had never seen in May in Texas – cool temperatures in the mid-50s, along with brisk early breezes. That forced players to wear long sleeves and sweaters; some even wore beanies, an unusual look for a tournament that’s normally closer to sweltering. Dallas native Jordan Spieth acknowledged he wasn’t prepared for it – he was on the range when he called his wife and asked her to bring him some cold-weather apparel from their house. “No excuses if you’re in your hometown,â€� Spieth joked. Sweden’s Henrik Stenson was properly bundled up. “Had four layers on and felt a little bit like the Michelin Man,â€� he said. Martin Laird, a native of Scotland, was very familiar with the weather. “Definitely more of a Scottish weather today than Dallas this time of year,â€� he said. The cool weather might have thrown off a few players. Kang was not one of them. “It’s like perfect and awesome,â€� he said. “Nice conditions for a low score.â€� Nice conditions for a 10-under 61, which is what Kang shot Friday to tie the course record set by Marc Leishman last year when Trinity Forest made its debut as the host venue. Spieth, a member at Trinity Forest, called it “an absurd round.â€� Compared to the rest of the field, it certainly was – Kang’s 61 was more than 10 strokes better than the field average when he finished early Friday afternoon. At 16 under through 36 holes, Kang had the clubhouse lead, four strokes ahead of playing partner Matt Every, who shot a 65. “An impressive round of golf,â€� Stenson replied when asked about Kang, who is seeking his first TOUR win. “He seems to have left some space between him and the rest of the field as of now.â€� It wasn’t Kang’s lowest score on TOUR – in 2016, he shot a course-record 11-under 60 at Monterey Peninsula while playing the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. His celebrity partner that week was comedian/TV actor Ray Romano, who had never heard of Kang prior to that week. On the flip side, Kang had never heard of Romano – he did a Google search to find out more — but they had four rounds to really get to know each other. Ironically, that week at Pebble Beach also had unusual weather – hot temperatures and sunny skies, and none of the “Crosby weatherâ€� the tournament is famous for in February. Related: Tee times | Hoops title gives McCarthy a lesson in toughness | A chip-in eagle – and then reality – for Romo | Nine holes blind, but Koepka still walks away with a 65 at Trinity Forest | Leishman withdraws with back injury | Origin story: Arm-lock putting  Obviously, Kang has shown the ability to compensate for different conditions. After checking the weather and noting the cool temperatures Friday, Kang adjusted his yardages on the driving range prior to his round, estimating that his shots were traveling five percent shorter than on Thursday. “So we just trust the number and five percent, just hit it and then worked out good,â€� Kang said. It certainly did during his run of six consecutive birdies in the middle of his round. At the short par-4 fifth, Kang nearly holed his wedge shot, then tapped in to start his birdie streak. His approach at the sixth from 135 yards landed 6-1/2 feet from the pin. He reached the fringe of the par-5 seventh green for a birdie there. His tee shot at the par-3 eighth finished 8 feet away and his approach with a 4-iron from 217 yards at the par-4 ninth left him 6 feet for birdie. Once he made the turn, he let his putter take over, as he rolled in birdie putts from 21-1/2 feet at the 10th, 18-1/2 feet at the 13th, 12 feet at the 14th and 11 feet at the 16th. As if that wasn’t enough, he saved par on his final hole with a 14-footer. Every was playing so well that it wasn’t until the back nine that he realized his playing partner was playing better. “I didn’t even know Sung was playing that good until 10, 11 there, looked on the board, said he made six in a row,â€� Every recalled. “Really, he’s made six in a row? I was kind of doing my own thing. “Yeah, it was a good day for both of us.â€� Kang said 59 did cross his mind after his birdie putt at the 16th. He needed birdies on the closing two holes, but neither one is easy, and he didn’t want to ruin his round with a late bogey. So he played conservative, not wanting to step back to the field “Conditions were so hard,â€� he said. “You try to force it and the course is playing so tough out there. So, just try to get the opportunity, probably try to hit it within 15 feet and if I make the putt, good. If I don’t, make par and get me going. “I still think it was a great round.â€�

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