O’Neal wins PGA Tour Champions stop for 1st time

Because the Ryder Cup is not an official PGA TOUR event, PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf has the week off. The fantasy game will resume for next week’s Sanderson Farms Championship for which more enhancements are planned. However, before we look forward, let’s look back for a moment. RELATED: Power Rankings | PGATOUR.COM Expert Picks The 2021-22 season-opening Fortinet Championship launched the latest iteration of PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf. As expected, fantasy scoring was way down as compared to the previous version, and leaderboard finish was a strong contributor to gamer performance. JJ’sFoursome led all gamers with 315 points. That includes 101 end-of-tournament bonus points for having Max Homa (50, winner), Maverick McNealy (30, 2nd), Marc Leishman (12, T4) and Hideki Matsuyama (9, T6) rostered as starters in the final round. ChicoV1 was the runner-up with 312 points (with 111 end-of-tournament bonus points). The Golf Dons took the bronze with 305 points (with 97 end-of-tournament bonus points). The data of the podium finishers of the first completed event begs the following question: What is the balance between actual scores, end-of-round bonus points and end-of-tournament bonus points for being a high performer? (Those are the categories for fantasy scoring.) If you separate binarily between end-of-tournament bonus points and all points that are not end-of-tournament bonus points, then JJ’sFoursome scored about 32 percent of its points with end-of-tournament bonus points, which, of course, are based on leaderboard finish. ChicoV1’s split was about 35.5 percent, while The Golf Dons’ cut was about 31.8 percent. So, approximately one-third of the totals for the top-three finishers weren’t determined until the conclusion of the tournament. And that’s in an event at which the 36-hole cut landed at 3-under 141 and Homa prevailed at 19-under 269. For the week, the field averaged 71.038, or 0.962 strokes under par. As compared to all courses during the 2020-21 PGA TOUR season, the Fortinet field would have slotted just inside the top half of the easier courses and in between par-70 TPC Southwind (-0.954) and par-72 Nicklaus Tournament Course (-1.051). (Silverado averaged 70.212 last year, but last week’s average was the second-lowest of the last five editions.) Because the FedExCup points structure is static, the percentage of end-of-tournament bonus points on a harder course will increase. However, aside from maybe Memorial Park that will host the Houston Open in November – the par 70 averaged 1.025 strokes over par in its debut last fall – our takeaway from Silverado should be relatively consistent until we get into the premier events in 2022, the first of which is the Farmers Insurance Open in the last week of January. One of the slicker functions of the new platform is the ease to search for any gamer. If you executed this step for me (@RobBoltonGolf), you’d have laughed at, er, found that I totaled – totaled – 81 points at Silverado, of which 11 were end-of-tournament bonus points (about 13.5 percent) representing the only two of my six who made the cut, Will Zalatoris (6, T11) and Harold Varner III (5, T16). Because it’s golf, no matter your skill level and even if you, like I, prevailed in your fantasy league in 2020-21, you’re gonna have weeks like that. Personally, because I wanted to see how the fantasy game supported or punished, I tested the possibilities of momentum of Korn Ferry Tour graduates Stephan Jaeger and Taylor Moore, both of whom missed the cut and cost me in the vicinity of 45 points overall, if I’m projecting scoring conservatively. The moral of the matter is that there are going to be gamers who connect with the likes of Homa, McNealy and Mito Pereira (who finished third for ChicoV1), but the likelihood of them doing the same at the Sanderson Farms Championship or even again in Segment 1 is low. At the same time, because you can’t score bonus points unless your charges make the cut, shelving an aggressive philosophy is advised in favor of more reliable talent. If we can agree that we’ll develop vision in this game for targeting “safe” investments with the potential for firepower, then we’re going to be OK with accepting the sudden impact of guys like McNealy, Pereira and others who might feel, at least right now, like they overperformed. That approach should then yield nice surprises for ourselves. As you continue to familiarize yourself with the interface, new experiences will be added next week. Beginning with the Sanderson Farms Championship, you will be able to review the entire roster of any other gamer, including the bench. You’ll also be able to use the tool to compare rosters. Both of these functions have been planned since the decision was made to introduce a new format, but they weren’t guaranteed to be available for the season opener. So it goes in the world of the PGA TOUR that took only one week off. Also, live just today is the addition of “PGA TOUR Experts” to the top of the public leagues. Until it was added to this grouping, it appeared only as the featured league. You’ll note that “pga experts” also is a public league and with more members (as of Tuesday), but that’s not the same league in which those of us featured in Expert Picks are members. For the record, the only league of which I’m a member is PGA TOUR Experts. This is as good a time as any to inform or remind you that the PGA and the PGA TOUR have been separate entities since 1968. For example, the PGA of America – not the PGA TOUR – is conducting this week’s Ryder Cup. So, every time you see “PGA” attached to something, if it doesn’t have “TOUR” immediately following, it’s not a directly affiliated matter to the PGA TOUR. That goes for everything from sanctioned competitions to Twitter handles of full-time staffers to the PGA TOUR Experts league at PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf. Incidentally, you can jump in and out of public leagues without forfeiting points scored. You can do the same in a private league where a password is required. For private leagues using a customized schedule, the interface is sophisticated enough to retrieve points scored only in the selected events. The last enhancement to share, for now, is one that you won’t experience in real time until last next week. PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf will be uploading the field of commitments for the Shriners Children’s Open when it’s determined on Friday, Oct. 1. So, if you’ve selected a golfer for a future tournament and he doesn’t commit, you’ll receive an automatic alert when the field is uploaded, assuming you’ve selected notifications in your Account Settings. This occurred on Mondays or Tuesdays with the last version of the game, so this experience is improved because it’s faster and timely. POWER RANKINGS RECAP – FORTINET CHAMPIONSHIP Power Ranking Golfer Result 1 Jon Rahm MC 2 Kevin Na MC 3 Will Zalatoris T11 4 Webb Simpson T30 5 Harold Varner III T16 6 Stephan Jaeger MC 7 Maverick McNealy 2nd 8 Taylor Moore MC 9 Mito Pereira 3rd 10 Sebastián Muñoz MC 11 Greyson Sigg T30 12 Cameron Tringale T22 13 Hideki Matsuyama T6 14 Brian Stuard MC 15 Aaron Rai MC Wild Card Cameron Champ MC SLEEPERS RECAP – FORTINET CHAMPIONSHIP Golfer Result Kiradech Aphibarnrat MC David Hearn MC Ben Kohles MC Cameron Percy T64 Chad Ramey MC BIRTHDAYS AMONG ACTIVE MEMBERS OF THE PGA TOUR September 21 … none September 22 … none September 23 … none September 24 … none September 25 … Adam Long (34) September 26 … Freddie Jacobson (47) September 27 … none Visit BetMGM.com for Terms and Conditions. 21+ years of age or older to wager. CO, IA, IN,MI, NJ, NV,PA, TN, VA or WV only. Excludes Michigan Disassociated Persons. Please Gamble Responsibly. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-522-4700 (CO, NV, VA), 1-800-270-7117 for confidential help (MI), 1-800-GAMBLER (NJ, PA & WV), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), Call or Text the Tennessee REDLINE: 800-889-9789 (TN), or call 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN).

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Golf’s biggest names will be looking to prove they’re at the top of their games in 2018. Bob Harig runs down what’s at stake.

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The first draft of the script for “Caddyshackâ€� was 200 pages long – which was nearly twice the norm for Hollywood screenplays at the time. And believe it or not, the character named Carl Spackler, the wacky and wacked out assistant greenskeeper so central to the movie in its final form, was nowhere to be found. Oh, and what about that gopher? Well, Spackler’s nemesis started out as a mere sock puppet, appearing in just one scene where the rodent pops up and steals Al Czervik’s golf ball. Those are just two of the many interesting nuggets that can be found in Chris Nashawaty’s new book, “Caddyshack: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story.â€� Nashawaty’s book came out in April of this year. It was born of a six-page oral history he wrote about the cult classic for Sports Illustrated in 2010, three decades after its release. The book is meticulously researched – witness the 27 pages of notes at the end of the book – and pays homage to a film that tops nearly every list of funniest sports movies. But Nashawaty, who has been the film critic for Entertainment Tonight for the last 20 years, does more than just take his reader behind the scenes of an 11-week shoot filled with drama and debauchery in south Florida. Nashawaty’s book also sets the stage, so to speak, for the movie by examining the friendship between Harold Ramis, who directed the film, and his co-writers and co-conspirators, Doug Kenney and Brian Doyle-Murray. Their bond had been cemented about a decade earlier when National Lampoon was at its zenith and NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” was turning traditional comedy on its collective ear. Kenney and Ramis were fresh off the success of “Animal House,â€� which they had written with Chris Miller, when they pitched a series of irreverent comedies to Orion Pictures and Jon Peters, who was married at the time to Barbara Streisand. The one that got the greenlight became “Caddyshack,” which had its genesis in Doyle-Murray’s memories of his teenage years spent caddying at Indian Hill Club on the north shore of Chicago. Once Nashawaty turns the focus to the movie, which comes about 100 pages into the narrative, the book gains momentum. And with comic geniuses like Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Ted Knight and Rodney Dangerfield on board, there were plenty of stories for him to tell. When Murray was hired to complete the “foursome,â€� as Nashawaty puts it, his character still didn’t exist, despite numerous rewrites to the script. Not to mention, with SNL about to resume production, he only had six days to devote to “Caddyshack,” but his brother, Doyle-Murray, promised him everything would work out. Much of Murray’s oft-imitated performance was ad-libbed – most notably the iconic “Cinderella Storyâ€� monologue. All the script said was: Carl, the Greenskeeper, is absently looping the heads off bedded tulips as he practices his golf swing with a grass whip. After changing the flowers to mums at Murray’s suggestion, the cameras rolled. And he did the entire sequence in one take. “I was good back in those days,â€� Murray tells Nashawaty. “I could do something when they turned the camera on. I was wired into what I was talking about. Improvising about golf was easy for me.â€� Anyone who has seen his antics at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am would certainly agree. And while he only had that one scene with the gopher puppet, Murray was frequently filmed trying to flush the critter out with a firehose he dragged around the course. It wasn’t until after filming was complete that the gopher took on a life of its own – eventually being created by a special effects company and at Peter’s suggestion assuming a bigger “roleâ€� to help to tie together the movie’s many disjointed but funny scenes. Murray loved doing battle with the gopher. “It was a time when people were making movies like the Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now,â€� Murray recalls in the book. “And that was my Vietnam movie. The ridiculously inappropriate firepower I used to kill a small rodent.â€� Speaking of firepower, there was plenty at Bushwood, aka Rolling Hills Golf Club, in Davie, Florida when the final scene was shot. Peters had taken the unknowing high-ups from the club to dinner and on an evening cruise as a diversion – but the proverbial jig was up when the explosions made the TV news and prompted a pilot to radio the nearby Ft. Lauderdale airport to report a crash. The damage to the Rolling Hills — which once hosted the likes of Jackie Gleason, George C. Scott, Johnny Unitas and Joe Namath — was minimal, though. Nashawaty’s book also delves into the complicated relationships between Chase and Murray, highlighting a fight between the two at 30 Rock during the SNL days, and between Knight and Dangerfield. Knight, a decorated war hero who won two Emmys for his work on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” wasn’t exactly thrilled with being the straight man to Dangerfield’s ribald style of comedy. In the end, “Caddyshack,” wasn’t the comedic blockbuster Ramis, Doyle-Murray and Kenney had hoped, that distinction, instead, going to the movie “Airplane.” As the years have gone on, though, “Caddyshack” has more than found its niche and this book is a tribute to its popularity.

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