Piercy shares homophobic slur about Buttigieg

This weekend, at the Zurich Classic, the PGA Tour is using intro music. What should DJ, Tiger, Rory and Phil use? We’re here to help.

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As of Tuesday afternoon, Webb Simpson is rostered by two-thirds of gamers in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf for the Wyndham Championship. Only two-thirds! How does this happen? Here, I was ready to recommend that only gamers in pursuit should abstain because front-runners will be using him for defensive purposes. Simpson at Sedgefield probably is on the podium of sites at which One & Doners write him down in ink before the season starts. Despite its slot on the schedule, it’s an acceptable push because you can’t lose ground in that format, but in the roster game that totals the scores for four golfers and with quadrupled bonus points in each of the three FedExCup Playoffs events lined up next, the smarter play is the no-play. Even if Simpson wins (again) at Sedgefield, you can absorb the hit with the promise of volatility straight ahead. If you’re still with me on that approach, pivot to Will Zalatoris. Because he’s not eligible for the Playoffs unless he wins the Wyndham, it’ll be his last start of the 2020-21 season. If you’re concerned about his health, that’s fair, but consider that he mustered the strength to sign for four rounds in the 60s at TPC Southwind en route to his T8. He’s absolutely ideal to spell Simpson for chasers. RELATED: Power Rankings | PGATOUR.COM Expert Picks PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf My roster for the Wyndham Championship (in alphabetical order): Russell Henley Sungjae Im Si Woo Kim Kevin Kisner Webb Simpson Will Zalatoris You’ll find my starters in Expert Picks. Others to consider for each category (in alphabetical order): Scoring: Joel Dahmen; Brian Harman; Jason Kokrak; Hideki Matsuyama; Seamus Power; Rory Sabbatini; Adam Scott; Brandt Snedeker; Matthew Wolff Driving: Joel Dahmen; Lucas Glover; Brian Harman; Jim Herman; Jason Kokrak; Hideki Matsuyama; Louis Oosthuizen; Harold Varner III POWER RANKINGS WILD CARD Rickie Fowler (+5000) … He’s fully exempt through the 2022-23 season but he’s not inside the bubble to qualify for the FedExCup Playoffs, so there is pressure to perform slotted 130th. We give him the benefit of the doubt that he’s invigorated by the immediacy of something so valuable at stake, so reserve him for fractional purposes in DFS. DRAWS Lucas Glover (+8000)… He hadn’t yet qualified for The Open Championship (MC) and the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational (T57) until he won the John Deere Classic a month ago, so treat those starts as bonuses on which he didn’t capitalize. The Wyndham Championship has been a staple on his schedule throughout his career, so anticipate a rebound and a springboard into the Playoffs. At Sedgefield, he’s gone 8-for-12 with five top 25s. It’s a test that rewards his skill set as a ball-striker and it won’t overpower as the 41-year-old ages. Jim Herman (+10000)… It’s strange but true that he’s defending a title for the second time in three starts. Four weeks ago, he placed T20 at the Barbasol Championship after sitting on that trophy since 2019. Now he returns to Sedgefield where he shot 16-under 124 on the weekend to prevail by one shot. He had hung up a pair of top 20s previously on this track, so it already was a comfort zone for the ball-striker. With five consecutive paydays upon arrival this time, he projects to serve DFSers well. Tommy Fleetwood (+5000)… Good for the payday but he’s gone five months without a top 10 and sits 136th in the FedExCup. His worst-case scenario is that he falls short of the Playoffs and then focuses on the Ryder Cup. Ryan Armour Joel Dahmen Talor Gooch Zach Johnson Kevin Na Patrick Rodgers Charl Schwartzel Adam Scott Roger Sloan Harold Varner III Matthew Wolff Gary Woodland Odds sourced on Tuesday, August 3 at 5 a.m. ET. For live odds visit betmgm. FADES Erik van Rooyen (+6600)… Nappy Factor, uh, baby! Gotta credit him for retaining this week’s commitment after last week’s career-changing experience, and we know that he’s won abroad, but it’s been a heavy, life-changing summer for the 31-year-old South African. Let’s give him the week to decompress and celebrate. If he goes on to contend again, then it’ll be the exception for a scenario like his. Bubba Watson (+6600)… First trip to Sedgefield in 12 years, so I’m lowering expectations based on that alone. The 42-year-old has had a terrific season with five top 10s among nine top 25s, but he’s still just 71st in the FedExCup, so the timing to contribute once more and slide inside the top 70 for a deeper run is perfect. Francesco Molinari (+12500)… The cynic in me has to give attention to the fact that this will be his 15th start of the season. It meets the membership minimum to retain voting privileges and avoids a one-year restriction from membership. He’s 140th in the FedExCup (and has missed six of his last eight cuts worldwide), so he likely would need to finish no worse than sixth to qualify for the Playoffs. This is just his second appearance at Sedgefield (T24, 2014). Matt Jones Matt Kuchar Luke List Chez Reavie Justin Rose Kyle Stanley Brendon Todd Jhonattan Vegas RETURNING TO COMPETITION Hank Lebioda … Hasn’t played since the 3M Open where he made the cut but withdrew at the midpoint to be with his father who was experiencing a serious health-related issue. Prior to it, the lefty was on some kind of tear. He was 7-for-7 with a pair of top 20s ahead of a T5-T4-T8 run into July. Also 2-for-2 at Sedgefield, so with the resolution of knowing his dad is on the mend, the byproduct of what happened is experienced in the form of a mental break from the day job and physical rest. At 90th in the FedExCup, he’s poised to make noise now and next week. Kramer Hickok … Rested since walking off TPC Deere Run during the second round of the John Deere Classic with a sore rib. He’s 86th in the FedExCup on the strength of the eight-hole playoff loss at the Travelers two weeks prior. Wildly inconsistent, so invest elsewhere. Vaughn Taylor … Injuries to his lower back (3M) and a rib (Barracuda) forced mid-tournament withdrawals in consecutive starts. He’s 148th in the FedExCup and 6-for-8 at Sedgefield, but he is unownable until he proves he’s healthy. NOTABLE WDs Patrick Reed … It’s not often when I drop an “indefatigable” on a golfer, as I did on him in the Power Rankings before he opted out on Tuesday. You can’t play them all, which is how the conclusion of his season was lining up because of the late call to compete in the Olympics. He was on the road for four straight weeks through Memphis and the three-event Playoffs await. If there’s a negative to the rest, it’s that he’s forfeiting the chance to finish inside the Comcast Business TOUR TOP 10. At 22nd in the FedExCup, he had a chance to rise to as high as eighth. Sam Burns … Now 10th in the FedExCup following his playoff loss at TPC Southwind. Pat Perez … It was interesting for a while there, but he climbed from outside the top 125 in the FedExCup with a sturdy summer that included a trio of top 15s. Currently 104th and headed back to the Playoffs. He’s missed only one edition in his career (2016) and that was because he was sidelined for eight months after having surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder. Rafa Cabrera Bello … At 169th in the FedExCup, the Spaniard will qualify only for the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, but he already had locked that up when he finished 129th in the 2019-20 FedExCup. He’s a good reminder that all who finished 126-200 in points both last season and this season are eligible. Kevin Stadler … It would have been his last start on a Major Medical Extension. POWER RANKINGS RECAP – World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational Power Ranking Golfer Result 1 Brooks Koepka T54 2 Jordan Spieth T12 3 Daniel Berger T5 4 Louis Oosthuizen T17 5 Dustin Johnson T10 6 Collin Morikawa T26 7 Matt Fitzpatrick T57 8 Scottie Scheffler 14th 9 Viktor Hovland T36 10 Rory McIlroy T12 11 Justin Thomas T26 12 Webb Simpson T15 13 Billy Horschel T17 14 Abraham Ancer Win 15 Xander Schauffele T46 16 Shane Lowry T23 17 Corey Conners T36 18 Brian Harman T36 19 Phil Mickelson T17 20 Sergio Garcia T26 Wild Card Patrick Cantlay T23 SLEEPERS RECAP – World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational Golfer Result Jim Herman T46 Ryosuke Kinoshita T43 Martin Laird T57 Carlos Ortiz T36 Aaron Rai T26 POWER RANKINGS RECAP – Barracuda Championship Power Ranking Golfer Result 1 Branden Grace T30 2 Maverick McNealy T18 3 Ryan Moore MC 4 Emiliano Grillo T27 5 Brian Stuard MC 6 Brandt Snedeker MC 7 Chez Reavie T43 8 Thomas Pieters T54 9 Mito Pereira T39 10 Justin Suh MC OTHERS TO CONSIDER RECAP – Barracuda Championship Golfer Result Ryan Armour MC Brandon Hagy 5th Aaron Wise MC BIRTHDAYS AMONG ACTIVE MEMBERS OF THE PGA TOUR August 10 … none August 11 … Morgan Hoffmann (32) August 12 … Chase Seiffert (30) August 13 … Tommy Gainey (46) August 14 … Lucas Bjerregaard (30) August 15 … Ted Purdy (48); Harold Varner III (31) August 16 … Will Zalatoris (25) Visit BetMGM.com for Terms and Conditions. 21+ years of age or older to wager. 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With his one-length golf clubs and baseball-bat-like grips, Bryson DeChambeau has always done things drastically differently than his professional peers on the PGA TOUR. Of course, it was never without speculation from observers, but racking up four PGA TOUR wins in 2018 alone seemingly put a stamp of approval on DeChambeau’s unique tactics. DeChambeau, however, with his best finish of 2019 being 7th place at the Sony Open in Hawaii back in January, continues to chase perfection from his golf game and equipment. Sometimes that means going to extremes, or, in this case, trending slightly back toward the norm. After a 14-hour range session in Dallas the week before the Masters, Dechambeau made a 75-gram reduction in his oversized JumboMax grip weights in his Cobra clubs. His new grips, made from a different lightweight compound, now measure just more than 50 grams, considered to be a “normalâ€� weight by industry standards, despite their relatively massive size. He also changed from True Temper Dynamic Gold X7 shafts – extremely heavy and stiff iron shafts – to Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 shafts, which flex more than his previous gamer shafts. Ever since he came on TOUR, DeChambeau used JumboMax grips on his clubs that measured about 125 grams per grip. He now works on his equipment with Cobra’s TOUR Operations Manager Ben Schomin, who says Dechambeau has improved his wedge play since first coming out on TOUR, but lately DeChambeau had struggled to find consistency with the flight of his wedges. The main issues were that spin was inconsistent and they tended to fly too high. For his part, Schomin built him wedges that used weld beads on the heel to help with face closure. While Schomin says it helped, DeChambeau — currently T105 in Strokes Gained: Around the Greens — wasn’t satisfied with his wedge play. To see DeChambeau’s old wedges, click here. Schomin and DeChambeau, chasing consistency with the wedges, decided to begin testing different variables. As it turned out, DeChambeau liked the feel of a 50-gram grip, versus his old 125-gram grips, and the new build allowed DeChambeau to flight the wedges lower, and gain spin and launch consistency. To get the wedges dialed in for competition, Schomin built eight different sets of wedges with different head weights – ranging from 270 grams to 300 grams – and different shafts — True Temper Dynamic Gold X7, X100 and S400 – each equipped with the lighter grips. Following the extensive wedge testing, DeChambeau decided on wedges that measured 290 grams in head weight with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 shafts. “A lot of it comes back to feel, because now there’s a lot more weight on the head end,â€� Schomin told PGATOUR.COM regarding the new wedges and grips. “So it felt different, the delivery felt different. It felt better, just better feedback from a feel standpoint. Then delivery wise his tempo was better, he could flight wedges lower, spin rate actually got more consistent from shot to shot to shot. He was pretty stoked.â€� After finding a wedge setup he liked, however, DeChambeau questioned the rest of his clubs. Would the rest of his clubs benefit from using the lighter grips? This is the question that “opened up a Pandora’s box,â€� according to Schomin, and it led to the 14-hour testing session in Dallas. “We set up at his club Wednesday morning at 7:30 (a.m.), and we worked until 9:30 at night,â€� Schomin said. “We literally had 30 minutes for lunch and that was our only downtime … when we got done on Wednesday night going back to the hotel, I get to the parking lot at 10:30 (p.m.), I was literally like just sitting in my rental. My brain, I was holding my ears to keep brain matter from falling out each side … that was just a crazy day.â€� In that 14-hour window, DeChambeau tested various combinations of irons with different shafts and different grips, and he hit on the GEARS Golf system that provides in-depth analytics. By 6:00 p.m., nearly 12 hours after starting testing, DeChambeau decided on 272-gram iron heads with S400 shafts and the same JumboMax 50-gram grips. The only problem was, they still needed to figure out the top-end of his bag. “It was reshaft, regrip, reshaft, regrip, just trying to figure out what felt right to him, and literally we figured out the irons at like 6:00,â€� Schomin said. “That’s cool, but we still have driver, 3 wood and 5 wood. So, we were able to dedicate maybe 2 hours until it was just too dark to see the ball flight.â€� Metalwoods testing continued into Monday and Tuesday of Masters week, but essentially nothing changed aside from the new lightweight grips, despite testing 3-6 shaft combinations for each head. DeChambeau is still playing his Cobra King F9 Speedback driver with a TPT shaft, and his 3- and 5-woods are each equipped with Project X HZRDUS 85-gram shafts. As a result of the last-minute testing and experimenting, DeChambeau found immediate validation; he was tied for the lead at the Masters after the first round, firing a 6-under-par 66. While he played the final round in 2 under, DeChambeau struggled in the second-and-third rounds shooting 75 and 73, respectively. The end result was a T29 finish. Schomin puts it into perspective: “Honestly, he only had a few rounds of golf in prior to that practicing with it, so to make such a dramatic change and be comfortable that fast is … I mean, he’s good at golf.â€� Now, Schomin says DeChambeau “really likesâ€� his golf club setup through the bag, but he knows going forward that further tweaks are inevitable. “That’s the nature of him; he makes tweaks to his golf swing and things change up a little,â€� Schomin said. “We might need to grind wedges a little bit differently. [His bag is] just never going to be set…. It’s never going to be perfect. He wants it to be. He knows perfection is not exactly attainable, but it’s always something he’s working towards.â€� While perfection may not be possible, DeChambeau continues to work towards that goal, whether it’s 14-hour, experimental range sessions, or tweaking something in his swing. “The kid works hard, there’s no denying it,â€� Schomin said.

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