New putter helps Ian Poulter at WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play

Judging by the questions I’ve received since the start of the season, this is a good time to plug my full-membership fantasy rankings. See, the extended introduction serves as a reference board of sorts. Built in are all kinds of bits and pieces regarding membership, tournaments, provisions, exemptions and, whoa, even fantasy-specific information. Included in the latter is an adjustment made to PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO. Beginning in 2017-18, golfers who lose in playoffs are awarded bonus points based on actual finish. Marc Leishman was the first golfer impacted when he was defeated by Justin Thomas at THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES on Sunday. The Aussie’s fantasy bonus was 150 points, which is equal to one-half his actual haul in FedExCup points (since the tournament didn’t utilize ShotLink data). Until now, playoff losers were under the same bonus structure as the winners who beat them. The only wrinkle is that Leishman’s bonus points weren’t manually adjusted in the platform until Monday. It occurred at the usual time that all non-members who contributed to fantasy teams were credited with their equivalent bonuses. Please relay this to others if you’re a commissioner or if you know of anyone who isn’t yet aware. PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO My roster for the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions (in alphabetical order): Dustin Johnson Brooks Koepka Marc Leishman Hideki Matsuyama Jon Rahm Justin Rose You’ll find my starters in Expert Picks. Others to consider for each category (in alphabetical order): Scoring: Daniel Berger; Jason Day; Tony Finau; Brian Harman; Phil Mickelson; Pat Perez; Patrick Reed Driving: n/a Approach: n/a Short: n/a Power Rankings Wild Card Alex Noren … Turning points are visible only with hindsight, so it remains to be seen if the WGC-HSBC Champions is a launch pad or a flat tire for the Swede. It’s not often when a 35-year-old from anywhere debuts as a PGA TOUR member, but that’s his reality this week. Thanks to four wins in 2016 and a statement victory at the BMW PGA Championship five months ago, he’s secured a spot on all of the planet’s biggest stages for the recent past and near future. He descended for his fifth appearance at Sheshan International with just one top 25 in his last five starts, but he has a pair here, including a T12 last year. Strongest for his aerial approaches and greenside game, he occupies the inside lane for a mammoth 2017-18. Draws Tommy Fleetwood (all) Branden Grace (DFS) Bill Haas (all) Brian Harman (DFS) Matt Kuchar (all) Michael Lorenzo-Vera (DFS) Thomas Pieters (all) Haydn Porteous (DFS) Hyun-woo Ryu (DFS) Peter Uihlein (DFS) Bernd Wiesberger (DFS) Fades Wesley Bryan Adam Hadwin Russell Henley Charles Howell III Charl Schwartzel Jhonattan Vegas Returning to Competition Brandon Hagy … A sore wrist thwarted a start at the Safeway Open where he had committed. Last year’s T14 at the Country Club of Jackson was his second-best finish of 2016-17. Roberto Diaz … Had to call it quits during his second round in his rookie debut at the Safeway Open with a back injury. A T20 at the Web.com Tour Championship the week prior was his first top 25 in 15 starts dating back to June. George McNeill … Eked into the field of the Sanderson Farms Championship as the fifth alternate. Hasn’t pegged it since withdrawing during the final round of the Barbasol Championship. An explanation wasn’t released. The 42-year-old is embarking on his second straight season in the Past Champions category. He made only seven PGA TOUR starts in 2016-17 and hasn’t cashed since last year’s SFC. Notables WDs Louis Oosthuizen … Unexpected withdrawal from the WGC-HSBC Champions because he tweeted last Saturday that he was eager to resume playing. Mackenzie Hughes … Second consecutive early withdrawal (this time in China) due to the imminent birth of his first child. Luke Donald … Withdrew from the Sanderson Farms Championship with a sore rib. It would have been his first appearance in 14 years. It was in that event in 2002 when he broke through for his first of five PGA TOUR victories. Power Rankings Recap – THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES Power Ranking  Golfer  Result 1 Tony Finau T26 2 Justin Thomas Win 3 Paul Casey T19 4 Pat Perez T5 5 Xander Schauffele T72 6 Russell Henley T33 7 Rafa Cabrera Bello T11 8 Marc Leishman P2 9 Jason Day T11 10 Keegan Bradley T47 11 Cameron Smith 3rd 12 Chez Reavie T15 13 Anirban Lahiri T5 14 Sung Kang T54 15 Kyle Stanley T19 Wild Card Patrick Reed T11 Sleepers Recap – CIMB Classic Golfer  Result Scott Brown T5 Jinho Choi T36 Luke List T5 Ollie Schniederjans T19 Young-han Song T58 Birthdays among active golfers on the PGA TOUR October 24 … Marc Leishman (34) October 25 … Troy Merritt (32); Xander Schauffele (24) October 26 … none October 27 … Fabián Gómez (39) October 28 … none October 29 … none October 30 … none

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Welcome to the Stats Insider, where we’ll take a closer look at Sungjae Im’s win at The Honda Classic. Im is just 21 years old but he’s already won the Korn Ferry Tour Player of the Year Award, PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year and now a PGA TOUR event. RELATED: Slow and steady, Im withstands pressure at The Honda Classic | What’s in Im’s bag? 1. YOUTH MOVEMENT: We’ve seen several young stars win on the PGA TOUR recently, and Im continued that trend. He is the fifth player age 22 or younger to win on the PGA TOUR since July, joining Matthew Wolff, Collin Morikawa, Joaquin Niemann and Viktor Hovland. That’s just two fewer than in the preceding five seasons. Seven players age 22 or younger won on the PGA TOUR from 2014 to 2018. Compare that to the 15 years from 1985 to 2000, when just four players age 22 or younger won on the PGA TOUR. 2. TOP NOTCH: Im moved to No. 2 in the FedExCup with the win, just 135 points behind Justin Thomas. Im also had a runner-up at this season’s Sanderson Farms Championship, where he lost a playoff to Sebastian Munoz, and finished third at THE ZOZO Championship. He finished behind Tiger Woods and Hideki Matsuyama that week, and tied Rory McIlroy. Im’s three top-3 finishes this season are tied for the most on TOUR. 3. TOUGH STUFF: Im conquered one of the toughest tracks on the PGA TOUR. PGA National’s penal layout, firm greens and a windy week combined to make this one of the toughest non-majors in recent memory. Only 16 players broke par for the week and the average round this week was nearly 2 over par. Im’s winning score of 6-under 274 is the highest winning score (in relation to par) in a non-major since Brandt Snedeker’s win in the 2016 Farmers Insurance Open. This was the first non-major since 1996 where no one posted a round of 5 under or lower. Im shot 4-under 66 in both the second and fourth rounds. 4. IT’S A TRAP?: Im won The Honda Classic with Sunday’s performance on the Bear Trap. He birdied the two par-3s that bookend that infamous trio of holes. Nos. 15 and 17 were the second- and third-hardest holes Sunday, but Im birdied both. There were just 13 birdies on those holes Sunday. Im was one of just two players to birdie both holes in the final round. Daniel Berger was the other. 5. TEE-TO-GREEN MACHINE: Sungjae Im finished 11th in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee, fifth in Strokes Gained: Approach and fifth in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green. Add it all together, and he led Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green by a large margin. He gained 12.3 strokes from tee-to-green, three more than the next player in that statistic (Russell Henley).

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PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico – By his own admission, Rickie Fowler hasn’t played much golf. Maybe that’s a good thing. With no expectations but confident after a season that saw him win The Honda Classic among 10 top-10 finishes, Fowler cruised at El Camaleon. He made six birdies and got up and down five times in five chances to keep a clean card in his first round of the new season. “Touch and feel is a big thing coming off of—I think we’ve had roughly a month off, five weeks or so,â€� Fowler said. “So when the feel is somewhat there, it frees you up to know that you can get away with some missed shots and it allows you to swing a bit freer.â€� The highest ranked player in this week’s field (10th), Fowler hit eight of 14 fairways and 13 greens in regulation. He took 26 putts. The 28-year-old has traditionally started his season in Asia, but he skipped the TOUR’s three-week swing in Malaysia, South Korea and China. That left him looking for a place to play, and he had heard glowing reviews of Mayakoba. He hasn’t been disappointed, soaking up the sun with girlfriend Allison Stokke since Saturday. That Fowler’s game seems so well-suited for the 7,000-yard, par-71 Camaleon course has been a bonus. “I had a really fun pro-am group,â€� he said. “I think they ended up going on to win. My crew started off with a win this week, I might as well finish it for the group on Sunday. “But off to a good start. Definitely want to play well down here being my first showing at Mayakoba. Yeah, I couldn’t really ask for much more today.â€� OBSERVATIONS KIZZIRE CITES DUFNER INFLUENCE. The 6-foot-5, Auburn product Patton Kizzire drove into the bunker and bogeyed 18, but his 62 was still his career low by one. It also continued a torrid early-season run in which Kizzire tied for fourth at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open and finished T10 at the Sanderson Farms Championship. One of his best results last season? A T5 with partner Jason Dufner at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. “He’s been a good mentor, a good friend,â€� Kizzire said. “He’s taken me under his wing and shown me a few things. We’ll play practice rounds together occasionally and just hang out. We’ll go to football games together and he’s a good one to pick his brain and to play with because he’s awfully confident.â€� MITCHELL SURPASSES FATHER. Keith Mitchell aced the 200-yard 10th hole with a 6-iron on his first swing of the day. It was only 8:30 a.m., and there were so few people around the green that Mitchell and playing partners Tom Hoge and Rob Oppenheim weren’t sure what had happened. “We heard a small clap,â€� said Mitchell, who went on to shoot 5-under 66. “It was pretty subdued.â€� It was his fourth hole-in-one and first since college, and he wasn’t sure where he stood relative to his dad, Jerry, who had made either three or four in his career. Mitchell, a Web.com Tour grad who missed the cut in his first three starts this season, texted his father in North Carolina and went to lunch. He later texted the PGA TOUR the verdict: “1 up.â€�  GOOSEN TURNS BACK CLOCK. Good results have been few and far between for the two-time U.S. Open winner, who was in a large group at 66 despite making bogey at the par-5 fifth hole. Goosen, 48, opened last season by missing seven straight cuts before finishing T2 at the Puerto Rico Open. He wound up 162nd in the FedExCup, and was 176th in strokes gained: putting (-.425). Thursday saw him hit eight of 14 fairways and 12 greens in regulation. He took 26 putts and looked more like the guy who has won seven times on TOUR. HAPPY NEWS FOR CHINA. Xinjun Zhang eagled the par-5 13th hole to join Goosen in the large group at 5-under 66. Zhang and Marty Dou played their way off the Web.com Tour last season to become the first players from China to earn their cards on the PGA TOUR. Now it’s just a matter of staying there. In three previous starts this season, Zhang had finished T37 at the Safeway Open, T44 at the no-cut World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions in Shanghai and missed the cut at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. NOTABLES GARY WOODLAND – A year after finishing second to Pat Perez at El Camaleon, Woodland was at it again, lurking after a 3-under 68 that included an eagle at the par-5 13th hole. KEVIN CHAPPELL – After a season that saw him win for the first time and make a successful Presidents Cup debut, he shot a 4-under 67. It’s been a good time for UCLA golf grads; Patrick Cantlay picked up his first win at last week’s Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. FABIAN GOMEZ – He’s the leading Latin American player after firing a 5-under 66. KEN DUKE – Monday qualifier got off to a solid start with a 68. QUOTABLES “We got here on Saturday, but didn’t touch a club until Tuesday.â€� – Rickie Fowler (65) on how he’s been making the most of the extracurricular activities at Mayakoba. “I knew my game was in good shape.â€� – Keith Mitchell (66), who made a quintuple-bogey 9 in round one of last week’s Shriners Hospitals for Children Open but missed the cut by just one. SUPERLATIVES Streaks: Kizzire birdied holes 8-13, bogeyed 18, and signed for a 62. Easiest hole: The 532-yard, par-5 13th. Among the leaders, only Martin Piller (66) failed to make at least a birdie there. Xinjun Zhang (66) was one of a handful of players who eagled the hole. Shot of the day: Mitchell’s hole-in-one on his first shot of the day was the eighth in tournament history, and the second time a player has started the OHL Classic at Mayakoba with an ace. Thomas Aiken did the same thing in 2015, also on the 10th hole and also with a 6-iron. CALL OF THE DAY SHOT OF THE DAY BEST OF SOCIAL MEDIA

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