‘Not sharp’ Mickelson (69) needs more reps but likely won’t get them at Safeway

Believe it or not, International Captain Ernie Els can turn the unfortunate loss of Jason Day into a positive for his Presidents Cup team. Sure, the list of what he has lost is vast, with the news that Day has succumbed to a back injury that will keep him sidelined for two months … • The experience of four previous Cup appearances • A 12-time PGA TOUR winner • A major winner • A former PLAYERS Championship winner • A former world No. 1 • A two-time winner of the World Golf Championships – Dell Technologies Match Play • A World Cup winner at Royal Melbourne • The best statistical putter on the team from last season • An Australian with a huge following But there are also gains to be had with the introduction of Byeong Hun An into his first Presidents Cup. Stay with us… RELATED: An in as Day bows out of Presidents Cup | Presidents Cup provides bonding experience for Hadwin, Weir | The unlikeliest Presidents Cupper Better form While Day is pure class, the fact remains he has had just one top-10 finish since The Masters Tournament in April – a T8 at the Travelers Championship in June. He hasn’t won since the Wells Fargo Championship in May of 2018. Now An hasn’t won on the PGA TOUR, but just since Day’s last top-10 finish the Korean has two third-place finishes on the TOUR and contended throughout the recent Asian swing. He was T6 at THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES and T8 at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP before a T14 at the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions. He sits 16th in the FedExCup while Day, who ended his fall with a missed cut at the Mayakoba Golf Classic, is 139th. An ranked first on the PGA TOUR last season in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green and seventh in SG: Tee-to-Green. The injection of new blood The International team has a 1-10-1 record in all Presidents Cups. Certain players have been there for a while and been unable to come up with a much-needed win. Now of course, the strength of the U.S. Team is the major factor here. They have always been a far superior team on paper. But a lot of European Ryder Cup teams have looked inferior but won. Day played in 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017 for an individual record of 5-11-4. For all his match play talent, Day hasn’t been able to turn it into Presidents Cup team success. In 2015, Day had won four of his last nine starts leading into the competition and was no worse that T12 over a stretch that included three majors, a WGC and the FedExCup Playoffs. But in Korea he went 0-4-1 and the Internationals lost by a single point. An is now one of seven rookies on the International Team. They don’t have the scars of losing. And An has his own match play history. He remains the youngest winner of the U.S. Amateur, a title previously held by Tiger Woods and then Danny Lee. The underdog status Even with the loss of the world No. 1 Brooks Koepka, the U.S. Team is stacked. Matt Kuchar, at 23rd, is the lowest-ranked American player in the world, and only Adam Scott (18th) and Hideki Matsuyama (20th) sit above him from the Internationals. Haotong Li, at 63rd, is the lowest-ranked International. Everyone expects the U.S. to win. They have dominated in the past and are led by Tiger Woods. But Els can harness that underdog mentality. (No one gives you guys a chance. They don’t respect you. They think they can just turn up and win.) Sport is full of underdog triumphs. There is an entire Hollywood movie genre on it. Maybe Els should play Rocky movies on the team bus. Or highlights of real-life upsets like when Buster Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson or the New York Giants beat the previously undefeated Patriots in the Super Bowl. They have an opportunity to create a unique legacy here… the team that finally knocked down the juggernaut. Freedom with pairings Els has stated for months that he will use analytics when making his partnerships and with another rookie he will have more freedom to do so. Day was expected to pair with fellow Australian Adam Scott – a unit that played together at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans and wanted to do so again. It looked a good duo, despite a missed cut in New Orleans, taking away some options from Els’ plans. Now Scott is freed up to go where the numbers best suggest – something that might help him avoid adding to the unwanted record of having the most losses in Presidents Cup history. Maybe it will be another ball-striker like An or Louis Oosthuizen. Or will it be a fiery rookie with putting prowess like Sungjae Im or Joaquin Niemann? An also brings a balance as he can seamlessly partner with the other Asian players as well as others. So while it certainly isn’t good news that Day won’t return to his native land this December, it is not as dire as it might seem. Els will make sure his team knows it.

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One is an annual tournament in which the objective is to get a ball into a hole to survive and advance. The other is the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play. College basketball doesn't have a monopoly on compelling competition in March. The best golfers in the world have descended on Austin Country Club for their own version of madness. The top 16 of this Power Rankings are who I've identified as the most likely to emerge from the three-day Group Stage launched on the only Wednesday start on the PGA TOUR. With Nos. 1-4 determined logically based on my winners of the championship and consolation matches, Nos. 5-8 are a subjective rank of the quarterfinalists. The golfers in positions 9-16 are my Group Stage survivors who are eliminated in the first round of the Knockout Stage. RELATED: The First Look | Inside the Field | Play the Bracket Challenge | Print out your bracket POWER RANKINGS: WGC-DELL TECHNOLOGIES MATCH PLAY POWER RANKINGS CONTINUED 17. Rory McIlroy 18. Ryan Palmer 19. Tony Finau 20. Louis Oosthuizen 21. Patrick Cantlay 22. Brendon Todd 23. Joaquin Niemann (first-timer) 24. Max Homa (first-timer) 25. Matt Fitzpatrick 26. Lee Westwood 27. Hideki Matsuyama 28. Tyrrell Hatton 29. Jason Day 30. Ian Poulter 31. Webb Simpson 32. Russell Henley 33. Viktor Hovland (first-timer) 34. Kevin Kisner 35. Lanto Griffin (first-timer) 36. Carlos Ortiz (first-timer) 37. Shane Lowry 38. Tommy Fleetwood 39. Corey Conners (first-timer) 40. Collin Morikawa (first-timer) 41. Scottie Scheffler (first-timer) 42. Erik van Rooyen (first-timer) 43. Kevin Streelman 44. Christiaan Bezuidenhout (first-timer) 45. Matt Wallace 46. Harris English 47. Marc Leishman 48. Adam Long (first-timer) 49. Kevin Na 50. Bubba Watson 51. Matt Kuchar 52. Mackenzie Hughes (first-timer) 53. Jason Kokrak (first-timer) 54. Victor Perez (first-timer) 55. Talor Gooch (first-timer) 56. Dylan Frittelli 57. J.T. Poston (first-timer) 58. Sebastián Muñoz (first-timer) 59. Matthew Wolff (first-timer) 60. Bernd Wiesberger 61. Robert MacIntyre (first-timer) 62. Si Woo Kim 63. Andy Sullivan 64. Antoine Rozner (first-timer) Just as devotees of college buckets rush to complete their brackets every year, arguably more than anything else in professional golf, the Match Play is the best way for fans to connect emotionally and still have success relative to others as seeds are merely fact more often than friction. In the first four spins of the Match Play at Austin CC, only 23 of a possible 64 top seeds in every pod survived the Group Stage format. Sixteen advanced from the grouping ranked 17-32 upon entry, 14 moved on from the golfers seeded 33-48, and 11 from the bottom 16 played on. Perhaps the best example of the competitive balance occurred in 2018 when Dustin Johnson went 0-3-0 as the defending champion and top seed of the tournament. You can play the Bracket Challenge for bragging rights and for a fantastic prize package. It's free to play. Consider the AUTOPICK feature and select from overall seed or odds. You also can copy my bracket as yours. If you select any, you can customize as usual from there. Since it's been two years from the last edition of the Match Play, there are 22 first-time participants in the field. Only the four-man pods headlined by Tyrrell Hatton and Justin Thomas don't include at least one debutant. Anytime that match play is the format, a unique Power Rankings could be constructed for every round. Matchups and momentum are the primary components that establish expectations, so a full-tournament Power Rankings must be consumed with a grain of salt. What doesn't change is the course, naturally. Austin CC is a par 71 with three par 5s. It tips at just 7,108 yards. The only relevant change is that the bunkers have new sand (as a result of a project to update drainage). TifEagle bermuda greens are overseeded and dialed to 12 feet on the Stimpmeter. The only cut of rough framing overseeded bermuda fairways and other areas of the shortest grass is two inches, and it is not overseeded. The weather will be worse before it gets better. A delay due to inclement conditions on Wednesday cannot be ruled out. Showers will linger into Thursday morning before dry air takes over and hangs throughout the weekend. And of course, given its location, wind will be a through line for most of the week. Course knowledge and applied experience in it should have value as a result. After posing for pictures with the Walter Hager Cup, the champion will receive 550 FedExCup points and PGA TOUR membership through at least 2023-24. As usual, if a non-member prevails, his equivalent of FedExCup points collected in either of the WGCs completed this season will not contribute to his membership total if he accepts his card. 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: Power Rankings (Match Play) TUESDAY*: Power Rankings (Corales); Fantasy Insider SUNDAY: Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Medical Extensions, Rookie Watch * – 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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