PGA TOUR, European Tour announce landmark strategic alliance

NOTE: If you play PGA TOUR Champions One & Done presented by SERVPRO, the Pacific Links Bear Mountain Championship begins on Friday. For my recommendations among notables in the field, scroll to the bottom of the page. With only the BMW Championship and TOUR Championship remaining in 2016-17, it would probably be easier to conduct a Q&A session to review your possibilities. Of course, you know I’m happy to do just that in the thread below, on Twitter (public or private) and via email (to [email protected]), but that’s the irony of the season. You need less advice and direction as your league championship hangs in the balance for you’ve likely whittled your choices accordingly. Still, simple reminders never hurt. For starters, make sure you have at least one guy available to burn at the TOUR Championship. The current points structure took hold in 2015 when points distributed in the Playoffs were reduced by 20 percent, but all of the top 21 in the FedExCup standings entering the BMW Championship advanced in all of the first 10 editions of the Playoffs. It’s not a guarantee for the top 21, mind you, but you need to draw the line somewhere to establish a plan. Reviewing the golfers in Future Possibilities below beside whom the TOUR Championship appears, only Jordan Spieth (1), Dustin Johnson (3), Paul Casey (8) and Justin Rose (17) are currently inside the top 21 in points. Conveniently, each has a terrific record at East Lake. Of course, if any are still available to you because you’ve mapped it out that way, then you already knew this, but anxiety still must be replaced by execution to pay it off. Others worthy of a look next week include Daniel Berger (11) and Kevin Kisner (14) for the sole reason that both will be putting on Bermudagrass. Once you’ve worked backward and selected your charge for the finale, the BMW presents like any other tournament. Both previous champions at Conway Farms don’t line up as favorably as we would have hoped. Zach Johnson (2013) and Jason Day (2015) are worthy finds in mid-September, but it’s likely that your opposition in pursuit will be on board more than front-runners. Both are in that rare positions as contrarians given all of the current variables. I shifted Day from this event to THE NORTHERN TRUST because I didn’t want him on the bubble at the BMW. It may prove to be the turning point of my season as he yielded a T6 at Glen Oaks but now sits 28th in points, while it also opened the door to slide Justin Thomas into place at Conway Farms. Thomas is fresh off victory at the Dell Technologies Championship. He won the PGA Championship and placed T6 at THE NORTHERN TRUST before that. While One & Doners often prefer not to choose the winner of the previous tournament, if you’re going to buck tradition, you want to do it during the Playoffs when there’s precedent for momentum. There have been five occurrences of a golfer winning consecutive tournaments in Playoffs history. Billy Horschel was the last in 2014. If you’re also chasing, it could be worth ignoring my advice of holstering Spieth, DJ and Casey in favor of a burning any of the three right now. (Rose would be your guy at East Lake.) Not unlike the ninth frame in bowling, your game can be determined in your penultimate performance. Positioning won’t mean anything unless you convert and put a mark on the board now. Two-man gamers who can still build a threatening lineup deserve the annual golf clap. Depending on your flexibility, you’re likely forced into reserving at least one of your spots for a long shot to advance. Snagging one from the likes of Patrick Cantlay (41), Charl Schwartzel (43), Chez Reavie (46), Keegan Bradley (48), Jamie Lovemark (58), Rafa Cabrera Bello (60) and Bud Cauley (68) would be timely. 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 … BMW Paul Casey … TOUR Championship Jason Day … BMW; TOUR Championship Jason Dufner … TOUR Championship Rickie Fowler … BMW Sergio Garcia … TOUR Championship Billy Horschel … TOUR Championship Dustin Johnson … BMW (defending on a different course); TOUR Championship Zach Johnson … BMW; TOUR Championship Hideki Matsuyama … BMW Rory McIlroy … BMW; TOUR Championship (defending) Ryan Moore … TOUR Championship Justin Rose … TOUR Championship Charl Schwartzel … BMW Jordan Spieth … TOUR Championship Henrik Stenson … TOUR Championship Gary Woodland … TOUR Championship CHAMPIONS ONE & DONE NOTABLES Pacific Links Bear Mountain Championship After its debut in 2016, Bear Mountain Resort’s Mountain Course in Victoria, British Columbia, is hosting again. It’s a par 71 with four par 5s (three on the inward side) and five par 3s, and it tips at 6,881 yards. The total prize money is $2.5 million, highest of the three remaining events in PGA TOUR Champions One & Done presented by SERVPRO. Golfers listed alphabetically. Rob’s serious considerations in bold. Stephen Ames … Lives in Vancouver, but he finished T54 last year. T19 at the Shaw in Calgary two weeks ago was one of four straight top 20s. Tenth in earnings with seven top 10s. Marco Dawson … Sneaky but inconsistent. Two top 10s in his last four starts but they’re also his only top 20s in his last eight. Tied for seventh here last year. Scott Dunlap … Disappointed us last week with a T44 at Narita, but worth the plunge again. He connected six top 20s prior to the trip to Japan and landed a T3 at Bear Mountain last year. Joe Durant … Stumbled to a T34 in Japan, but figures to rebound despite a T28 here last year when he settled for an even-par 71 in the final round. Bob Estes … Took last week off after a T10 at the Shaw. Timely wild card no matter your position. Steve Flesch … A T15 at the JAPAN AIRLINES Championship extended his top-20 streak to eight in a row. Has nine in 11 starts since turning 50 in May. Doug Garwood … A rare inclusion here but worth your attention after a T3 at Bear Mountain last year. Nine top 25s this season, including a T22 in Japan. Sits 37th in earnings. Todd Hamilton … Was poised to deliver on the Japan connection but drifted to T9 in the finale. However, he’s connected top 10s for the first time in his PGA TOUR Champions career. Lee Janzen … Loves himself par 3s but he’s just off the radar to warrant even a flier at Bear Mountain where he finished a steady T28 last year. Jerry Kelly … Answered his breakthrough at the Boeing with a T6 at the Shaw. Top 25s in 12 of his 14 starts. A brilliant option this late if you have the means. Bernhard Langer … Given the purse, if you’ve yet to burn him, it’s time. Shared seventh place last year, albeit needing a closing 63. Four-time winner this season. No. 1 in earnings. Tom Lehman … Bear Mountain debut, but he’s been in a funk in recent starts. After nine straight top 20s, he’s gone four straight without one. Scott McCarron … Opened last year’s P2 with a 62. Thrice a winner in his last seven starts entering this week. T2 at the JAPAN AIRLINES Championship. Colin Montgomerie … No-brainer. Prevailed in a playoff over Scott McCarron at Bear Mountain last year and beat McCarron and Billy Mayfair by one for victory in Japan last week. Scott Parel … Coming on a bit in the last month with four straight top 20s. T9 in Japan last week. Closed out a T12 here last year with a 7-under, 35-29=64. Corey Pavin … Sets up well for his debut at Bear Mountain and placed T9 last week in Japan. So hit and miss, though. Best suited for front-runners. Jeff Sluman … Continues to produce. T15 in Japan marked his 12th top 25 of 2017. T3 at Bear Mountain last year. Turned 60 years of age on Monday. David Toms … His T6 at the Boeing Classic is his only top 20 since May. Scott Verplank … Poor showings in his last two starts and a T57 last year. We need more promise at this point. Duffy Waldorf … T12 here last year, but rapidly falling out of favor for a spot with only one finish better than a T20 in his last 10 starts.

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Start with a Rubik's Cube. Twist it and crank it, make it as hopeless looking as you can, and it won't matter. Put that thing in front of a certain subset of nimble-fingered geniuses and they'll figure it out in a matter of seconds. They're just too good. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Five things about The Concession What's happening at the sun-splashed World Golf Championships-Workday Championship at The Concession, where Collin Morikawa (67) will take a two-shot lead over Billy Horschel (69) and Brooks Koepka (70) into Sunday, is essentially the golfing version of that. Whoever wins, it will be a victory for that ineffable quality known as golf IQ, that unseen but still very real attribute that separates the elite of the elite on the PGA TOUR. "I’m kind of good at resetting," Morikawa said after a round in which he reeled off eight birdies in a 10-hole stretch. "And figuring out what I did well, and just kind of pushing that forward into tomorrow and really figuring out what I didn’t do great, obviously, those last few holes and just learn from them." (After building a five-shot lead, Morikawa bogeyed two back-nine par 5s.) This marks the second time Morikawa will take at least a share of the lead into the final round. The first was the 2019 3M Open, where he tied for second. He leads the field with 23 birdies. Webb Simpson (69) will go into Sunday at 12 under, three back, while Rory McIlroy (66) and Patrick Reed (69) are by no means out of it at 11 under. Even Viktor Hovland (66, 10 under), is still in the mix. He has made 12 birdies and an eagle the last two days but showed how fast the course can bite back when he made a quadruple-bogey 8 on his last hole Friday. They've been the fastest to solve the Rubik's Cube that is The Concession. Before this week only a handful of players had ever seen the course that members call The Concussion. There's water everywhere, and sand, plus the odd alligator. Then there's the roller-coaster greens. And yet the best players in the world are figuring it out. Morikawa, who at 24 already has three TOUR wins, including a major, is an especially fast learner, and this week he's been buoyed by a chipping lesson from Concession member Paul Azinger. What's more, the young Cal graduate has built his putting stroke, which he calls "kind of the saw," with input from PGA TOUR Champions member Mark O'Meara. Here's how fast the best in the world adapt to a new course: Koepka, who has come from behind in four of his eight TOUR wins, had never seen the back nine until the first round Thursday. "I mean, Rick walked it," he said with a shrug after the first round, a reference to his longtime caddie, Ricky Elliott. "I get a yardage book, it's not too difficult." Well, it is, actually. But these guys just make it look like it isn't. "You can make this golf course as easy or as hard on yourself as you want to be," McIlroy said after vaulting up the leaderboard with a back-nine 31, including an eagle at the par-5 13th hole. "If you want to take something on and put it into sort of smaller spots to give yourself better looks, you can, or you can lay back if you’re more comfortable doing that. "A couple of tee shots on the back nine, that’s what I did, I just laid back," he continued. "I knew I was going to have over 200 into 18, but I was happy hitting 3-wood off the tee instead of hitting driver. Just keeping it in play, keeping it in front of you and going from there." High golf IQ means knowing when to back off and when to attack, your place on the scoreboard, and where others are, too. Jack and Tiger had it. Koepka, who is seeking to become the first multiple winner this season (Waste Management Phoenix Open), seems to have it. Oh, and the last time Horschel was inside the top two on the leaderboard through 54 holes on TOUR, he went on to win (2017 AT&T Byron Nelson). Morikawa, who grew up in Southern California and played collegiately in Northern California, admits he is not by nature a Florida guy. He's only played a handful of times here, but you'd never know it from his body of work at The Concession, where he was 7 under through 12 - including a career-best five straight birdies - but 2 over for the last six holes Saturday. He doesn't have the Rubik's Cube entirely figured out. But he's working on it. "There’s so many positives to take from those first 12," he said, "but I have a lot to learn from those last six. I’m not looking at it as a negative. Yeah, I didn’t play great the last six, but a lot to learn from heading into tomorrow. Just to kind of clear my head to get ready for the 18-hole grind tomorrow. It’s all a learning experience for me and if I can just kind of tighten everything up from throughout the entire round tomorrow, I think we’re going to be fine."

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For each of the first 14 seasons of the FedExCup era, PGA National's Champion Course set the tone for the Florida Swing. Home of The Honda Classic since 2007, it launched a strenuous, month-long sojourn for the PGA TOUR in the Sunshine State. Because of the reconstructed 2020-21 PGA TOUR season, and for the first time since PGA National assumed host duties, the Honda was shifted to the anchor position of the Florida Swing. It's another way of rerouting the more familiar march - in like a lamb and out like a lion. The stern test in Palm Beach Gardens has been the hardest par 70 in a non-major three years running and five of the last six. More on it, how breakthrough champion Sungjae Im prevailed a year ago and other details can be found beneath the ranking of projected contenders. RELATED: The First Look | Inside the Field POWER RANKINGS: THE HONDA CLASSIC Tuesday's Fantasy Insider will include reviews of 2017 champion Rickie Fowler, Stewart Cink, Zach Johnson, Ian Poulter and other notables. Since its inception as the Jackie Gleason's Inverrary Classic in Lauderhill in 1972, the PGA TOUR has set up shop for this tournament in south Florida in the window of late February through mid-March. However, for its 49th edition this week - if you're doing the math to understand why it's not the 50th, in 1976, Inverrary hosted the third edition of what today is known as THE PLAYERS Championship, so there was a gap year in the history of the Honda - it'll begin later (March 18) than any previous edition ended (March 16 of 1997 and 2003). Although the move was triggered by the pandemic, it's worth a mention because there's a natural curiosity for how the winds will impact ball flight at a time never experienced for this tournament. Every edge matters. Alas, breezes will be omnipresent throughout as usual. However, with a system encroaching on Friday's action, winds will rotate to push in from a southwesterly direction. Come the weekend, they'll be blowing in from the opposing north and rain could fall during part of Sunday's scheduled finale. The bright side to the swirl is that daytime highs will drop from the upper 80s on Thursday and into the 70s by Saturday. Ordinarily, years of experience would be a prerequisite to contend in gusts on a treacherous track, but since Michael Thompson captured the title in 2013, four of the eight champions were in their second appearance, including the last two. In a general sense, the combination of these factors favors ball-strikers over putters. Im's winning pace of 6-under 274 was just one better than Mark Wilson's record high in PGA National's debut in 2007. As expected with a high degree of difficulty, Im checked all of the necessary boxes. He ranked T10 in fairways hit, T2 in greens in regulation (50 of 72) and led the field in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green. He also finished T5 in scrambling and inside the top 10 in par-3, par-4 and par-5 scoring. Despite all of that sparkle, he was just T38 in Strokes Gained: Putting. The Champion Course gives away nothing, except to tease on the pair of par 5s. Among 41 courses used in the truncated 2019-20 season, it slotted 21st in driving accuracy, fourth in GIR, sixth in proximity, second in putting: birdies-or-better, third in scrambling, T2 in par-3 scoring and third in par-4 scoring. It was T23 in par-5 scoring. Not unlike how most of TPC Sawgrass sets up, the majority of PGA National doesn't require weight training to excel. At just 7,125 yards and averaging but 277.2 yards in distance of all drives (fourth-shortest clip last season), the field of 144 can focus on the rest of the exam. Of course, it includes The Bear Trap - the par 3-4-3 sequence of holes 15, 16 and 17. For the week, it yielded a scoring average of 10.652, which aligns with its expectation over time. Im scored 1-under with four birdies to outbalance a trio of bogeys. Only the two-inch bermuda rough is overseeded (with rye). The TifEagle bermuda greens are prepped to their customary 12 feet on the Stimpmeter. 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 TUESDAY*: Sleepers, 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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