PGA Tour best bets: The American Express

OVERVIEW Tiger Woods has a lot more to celebrate than just his 43rd birthday as we wind down 2018. His 80th PGA TOUR victory at the TOUR Championship moved him within two wins of all-time leader Sam Snead. He’s knocking on the door for his 15th major after finishing second at the PGA Championship and T6 at The Open Championship last summer. His impending captaincy at the 2019 Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne has him thinking big. “Would I like to be a playing captain?â€� he said. “Yes.â€� The big question going into ’19 is how often can he summon the Tiger of old the way he did in winning at East Lake and, more fleetingly, at Innisbrook, Bay Hill, TPC Sawgrass, Bellerive and elsewhere last season. And if he can, could he conceivably turn golf on its head yet again? “Now it’s just about managing and making sure I’m fresh for events,â€� Woods said, “because I know I can win tournaments again.â€� Staying fresh is easier said than done, though, especially with the new condensed schedule. Woods admitted feeling exhausted by the end of last season, where in his seventh start in nine weeks and just days after winning the TOUR Championship, he went 0-4 in the Ryder Cup. (To be fair, three of those four losses came in team play and were hardly all on him.) Part of the problem was the weather, which Woods called stiflingly hot for much of the summer. “I was exhausted by the time I got to the Ryder Cup,â€� he said. “I was worn out mentally, physically, emotionally.â€� To avoid a similar fate in 2019, he said he will manage his schedule more closely and play fewer events. No doubt he has all the big tournaments circled. He’s won THE PLAYERS Championship twice, and has wins at Augusta National, Pebble Beach and Bethpage Black — three of the four major venues this season. But, really, Woods could win anywhere, anytime. Isn’t that the way it’s always been? — By Ben Everill Click here to see who else made the Top 30 list. BY THE NUMBERS FEDEXCUP UPDATE Current 2018-19 position: N/A Playoff appearances: 7 TOUR Championship appearances: 5 Best FedExCup result: Won the FedExCup in 2007 and 2009, and remains the only two-time winner. SHOTLINK FUN FACT Tiger Woods led the PGA TOUR in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green for the sixth time in his career. INSIDER INSIGHTS PGATOUR.COM’s Insiders offer their expert views on what to expect from Tiger Woods in 2019. TOUR INSIDER: Woods took time off after the Ryder Cup to work on his fitness in order to steel him for the long season ahead, which is good because he’s going to need some time on the practice grounds. He’ll want to shore up his driving, where he was 104th in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee last season. He was a respectable 39th in SG: Putting, but that obscured some un-Tiger-like days on the greens as he switched in and out of putters. Speaking of which, he also may need to test equipment, which was the final puzzle piece in 2018. Good thing Woods loves that stuff. Last season was fun, but if he feels as good or even better physically in 2019, watch out. — By Ben Everill FANTASY INSIDER: It isn’t 2013, so he’s not the caliber of a first-overall pick in any draft, but the gap between his needle-pinning narrative in the mainstream and his value in our world hasn’t been as tight since that five-win season. I slotted him No. 10 in my full-membership fantasy ranking in advance of 2018-19 in part with the thinking that he’s an automatic second-rounder in non-keeper formats. Playing time will always be a front-burner concern for the remainder of his career, but he should remain as reliable as he was in his prime because he’s logged an entire season absent of serious concern over his back. — By Rob Bolton EQUIPMENT INSIDER: Tiger’s Newport 2 GSS putter is basically a celebrity in its own right. You know, it’s the one with “Tiger Woodsâ€� stamped on the back bumpers and a single red dot on the back cavity and the face. After winning 13 of 14 majors with the putter, however, Woods and his Newport 2 putter were treading rough waters. He switched into a TaylorMade TP Ardmore 3 mallet-style putter for awhile in 2018, most notably using it during his 2018 PGA Championship second-place bid. Then he switched into a TP Black Copper Juno putter. Then, he was deciding between the old Newport 2 and the new Juno – at one point, literally holding each putter in one hand while practice putting. Ultimately, in a happy ending, he decided on the Newport 2 putter and he won the 2018 TOUR Championship. Aside from his putter saga, Woods also switched from TGR blades to TaylorMade “TW Phase 1â€� prototype irons in 2018. Is there a Phase 2 coming in 2019? Or, will Tiger switch into irons that are in the TaylorMade iron family? — By Andrew Tursky STYLE INSIDER: There are few surprises with Woods’ style. Over the years, he has blended traditional country club style with high-tech touches. Tiger improved his look in 2018 with slimmer fitting trousers and fewer white belts. While there is no official word from Nike, Tiger is due for a new shoe in 2019. Stay tuned. — By Greg Monteforte

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PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico – Collin Morikawa is getting old. He said it himself, with a big smile, and it might have been the reason why his body hasn’t been moving the way he would have liked through the 2022 calendar year. A lot of traveling. A lot of work. A lot of effort to try to become the best in the world. But he’s got a plan in place to end this year with a bang at the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba, and hopefully get a bit of the sour taste of a winless 2021-22 campaign out of his mouth before the holiday season. “This year’s been fairly stressful, a little frustrating at the same time. I think some guys are definitely taking it easy and I’ve kind of ramped it up just trying to kind of figure things out,” said Morikawa. “I want to finish this fall on the best of foot forward as possible. That’s why I come to these tournaments… to come out here and play well and hopefully win.” Morikawa notched two runner-up results last season – THE CJ CUP and The Genesis Invitational – and had eight top-10 finishes. His ball-striking remained elite, finishing third on TOUR in Strokes Gained: Approach The Green. The momentum hasn’t been there through the fall portion of the 2022-23 season, however, as he finished tied for 45th at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP and then tied for 29th at THE CJ CUP in South Carolina. The two-time major champion admitted he did “a lot of searching” after starting his year in Dubai on the DP World Tour with a few lackluster results. Things “just never felt good,” he said. “Just kind of was searching for that game, searching for just kind of a normal,” he said. “The problem is when I search is like, I search for perfection, right?” As he looks back on the year that was, he said he knows what he needs to do. And he’s already started to tighten the screws. “Man, like I drank way more in college than I ever do now, but apparently when you get older, your body just moves differently,” said Morikawa with a laugh. “I still feel great, like everything feels great, everything moves great, but it’s just not as clean as it was. And the maintenance I have to do now is just a little bit more. “It doesn’t mean I need to do anything crazy. I’m not changing anything really. It’s just getting my body to where I need it to be.” This week’s setting may help with that. Although this marks Morikawa’s Mayakoba debut, he said he fondly recalled playing golf in Cabo San Lucas as an amateur and compares golf in Mexico to teeing it up in Hawaii. After a stretch of travel that included Japan, South Carolina, and now Mexico, the easy-going vibe at the World Wide Technology Championship may be just what the doctor ordered. “You do a lot of business when you’re out on the golf course but you’re able to really separate yourself and enjoy the time away,” he said. “I think what’s so great about when players come to a resort like this… they’re able to stay near the beach and kind of do other activities that force them to get away from the golf course. I think all great players have to do that.” Morikawa is certainly one of those great players. And despite not feeling 100 percent about his results from 2022, there’s hope for good things to come yet. “It’s a grind, but that’s what’s great,” said Morikawa. “Even though we are kind of heading towards this offseason, this fall area, I’m putting a lot of pieces together and putting a lot of work in to make sure this next (2023) is going to be as best as ever.”

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