Power Rankings: Valspar Championship

Editor’s note: Editor’s Note: Raymond Jin is a First Tee of Greater Trenton participant. He wrote an essay for the Wells Fargo Succeeding Together contest. Raymond found out he was the winner for 2020 from 2019 Wells Fargo Championship winner Max Homa. On Wednesday of the 2021 Wells Fargo Championship, Raymond had the opportunity to play in the pro-am with the PGA TOUR player of his choosing, Rory McIlroy. I would first like to give my utmost thanks to Wells Fargo, First Tee, and the PGA TOUR for the opportunity to play in Wednesday’s Pro-Am with Rory McIlroy and Zhang Xinjun. The event and the Wells Fargo Championship in general are very well-run. I recognize that this event is possible only because of all the people behind the scenes working to make my experience amazing, and for that, I’m very grateful. Words cannot even begin to describe the joy I had while playing. By applying the First Tee’s Nine Core Values — honesty, integrity, sportsmanship, respect, confidence, responsibility, perseverance, courtesy, and judgement — I was able to have an excellent round. For example, on a 60-yard approach shot, I was going uphill and into the wind. I exhibited good judgment and quickly pulled out my 59-degree while the wind was still fairly calm. With these conditions, I hit a high shot that landed 6 feet from the hole and rolled very little, positioning myself for a nice easy putt for par. Overall, my experience was unforgettable because I learned so much from playing with two great pros. Rory and I read putts together on one hole, and he gave me great pointers on how to line up the shot. Afterwards, I made birdie, and he joked that we should always read putts together. Rory also gave me a great piece of advice: “you don’t have to try to make friends; rather, you naturally resonate with certain people and communities; find your people, and you’ll feel right at home no matter where you go.” As I’m heading to Yale in the fall, I’ll definitely take that advice with me in order to find my niche on campus while continuing to make an impact in the community around me. Zhang was also a wonderful guy to play and interact with. While waiting on the tee box, Zhang remarked how my Mandarin was very good for somebody who grew up in the United States. He also asked about what it was like growing up in New Jersey and about my future studies at Yale. It was also really interesting to get to know his life growing up in China and his introduction to the game of golf. In the end, I came away from this experience with what I had come for: a deeper perspective and understanding of playing professional golf. Waking up at 5:30 for a 7:10 AM tee time, getting mic’d up, hitting my shot off the first tee with an entire gallery watching, and playing 18 holes at Quail Hollow under the North Carolina heat made me really appreciate the dedication, grit, and tenacity of professional golfers. Now, I can fully comprehend their ability to perform under pressure and incredible amounts of stress, where a shot could mean the difference between over a million dollars or a couple hundred thousand. I feel incredibly lucky being able to get this up-close exposure at a young age. I’ll take the lessons I learned from the Pro-Am, both golf and life-related, and apply them to my everyday life, on and off the golf course.

Click here to read the full article…

LA QUINTA, Calif. – Phil Mickelson started his first event of 2019 with the lowest score of his PGA TOUR career. He ended it with a disappointing defeat, losing a two-shot lead in the final round of the Desert Classic. Mickelson followed Thursday’s 60 at La Quinta Country Club with rounds of 66 and 68 to post the second-lowest 54-hole score of his career. He started the final round two shots ahead of Adam Hadwin and three ahead of Adam Long. Long made a 14-foot birdie putt on 18 to beat Mickelson (69) and Hadwin (67) by one shot. Long’s Sunday 65 included chip-ins on the 12th and 15th holes. He finished at 26-under 262 (63-71-63-65). Mickelson has now failed to convert six of his last seven 54-hole leads. This was the second consecutive time he lost a two-shot lead entering the final round. The other came at the 2016 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. This was Mickelson’s first official TOUR event since the Safeway Open in October and his first competitive round since his match with Tiger Woods. In spite of his low scores, he said that he was rusty at the start of the week. His lack of recent competition may have contributed to Sunday’s struggles, as well. “It’s a weird game how sometimes if you haven’t played for awhile it just can click and come right back,� Mickelson said. “But usually you need a little bit of a foundation there coming down the stretch. When you get to feel the pressure, you need to have that foundation of practice and seeing the shots that you want to hit, seeing the ball go in on the greens. I didn’t really have that today.� Mickelson was trailing by two when the final group reached the 10th tee. He bogeyed the par-4 ninth after driving into the water and Hadwin birdied the hole. Mickelson made back-to-back birdies on 15 and 16 to tie Hadwin and Long atop the leaderboard, though. He made birdie after missing a 10-foot eagle putt. Mickelson narrowly missed lengthy birdie putts on the final two holes, as well. The long putts weren’t the problems, though. “It was the short (putts). It was the short putts that I really turned around these last few years and today I just struggled,� Mickelson said. He lost 3.2 strokes on the greens Sunday. He missed a 4-foot putt to three-putt the first hole and also missed two putts from 5-7 feet. “I had a terrible putting day, one of the worst I can recall in a while,� he said. “It started right on the first hole. … I felt awful with the putter. I hit a lot of good shots today, though, but just couldn’t get the ball to go in the hole.� Mickelson, 48, said earlier in the week that swing speed and putting are the two skills that see decline at his age. He led the field in driving distance (302.5 yards on all tee shots) but finished 64th (out of 73 players) in Strokes Gained: Putting.

Click here to read the full article…

No matter what I advise for strategy, placement and everything else in Tiger Woods’ orbit, gamers are gonna do what gamers are gonna do. With him in play at this week’s Farmers Insurance Open, I’m reminded of this reality. On one hand, it’s exactly one of my career objectives; that is, that you don’t need me. Think of it like a graduate program. I help you ramp into the hobby, but eventually you’re on your own, perhaps even devising your own methods. Of course, I’m always here to do your homework and answer questions because there’s often not enough time for you to sink your teeth into the research, but understand that I do convey quite a bit of my analysis with an implication that this isn’t your first rodeo. I certainly rear beginners, but they’re not yet part of the core audience. The irony is also cliché, that beginners tend to make the most mistakes. You’d think that they’d listen the best, but logic doesn’t apply in this case. At the top of the list of questionable maneuvers might be when to invest in Woods. For an example, look no further back than last year’s Farmers. In my extended capsule for Woods in the Fantasy Insider, I wrote, “we also must wonder how far he is away from another setback.” In the One & Done column the next day, I added, “My philosophy on Woods is simple. When he’s healthy, he doesn’t slump. When he’s not healthy, he stops playing.” The advice was to sit tight and let him come to us. Naturally, that didn’t stop three percent of One & Doners from plugging him in. That slotted him 13th overall. (He missed the cut and was shut down for 10 months after withdrawing with the recurring back injury in Dubai the following week.) If that sounds reasonable, consider that Rickie Fowler was 15th, Hideki Matsuyama was 16th, Marc Leishman was 19th, Tony Finau was 21st and eventual champion Jon Rahm ranked 26th in ownership percentage. If you want to argue that there was motivation to holster all five of those guys, that stance applied most to Woods. I can’t prove what percentage of Woods’ investment contingent were beginners, but based on my experience, I suspect that they represented a distinct majority. Despite the assumption that gamers know better because they learn – remember my career objective? – this week’s faith in Woods could be even higher. He’s definitely healthy, but he’s also getting rave reviews from peers. There is no fair comparison for this comeback. It stands alone. At the same time, the fantasy advice hasn’t changed: Wait. If I hadn’t already burned Tony Finau, I wouldn’t hesitate at Torrey Pines. He presents zero concern in terms of course history and form, and the Farmers slots as his best site of the season in our format. This is also Brandt Snedeker’s top spot, but that’s only a phenomenal track record talking. Give him more time to lay into a groove following his unusual sternum injury that stripped him of five months of competition in 2017. Rahm is defending. He’s also coming off victory No. 2 last Sunday. When you’re sitting 1st-1st in the categories with which all gamers start their weeks – course success and form – he’s as no-brainer as no-brainer gets. He’s also my selection. Perhaps pause would be warranted if another emergent talent was in his shoes, but he’s not ordinary. He’s extraordinary. Charles Howell III and Gary Woodland are suitable alternatives. I’d hold off on Justin Rose if for no other reason than he’s making the trip from Abu Dhabi. We saw that work against Rickie Fowler (from 2015-2017), who is also in the field, but he’s also better reserved for later. The rest of the usual suspects are ruled out in Futures Possibilities. It’s early. A sneaky selection is Shane Lowry, who was chosen by one fewer One & Doner that Woods en route to a T33 a year ago. The Irishman’s previous two appearances resulted in top-15 finishes and he’s fresh off a blistering conclusion to 2017. If Rahm wasn’t sitting there for me, I wouldn’t hesitate on Lowry. Two-man gamers could lead with Lowry and add Kyle Stanley, Ollie Schniederjans or Jhonattan Vegas. 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 2017-18. The numerical values in parentheses represent the order of relative confidence of where to use each golfer if multiple sites are listed (e.g. 1 for strongest, 2 for next-strongest and so on). To present weighted confidence in real time, numerical values will not change all season no matter how many tournament remain listed for each golfer. All are pending golfer commitment. Keegan Bradley … Farmers (6); Waste Management (7); Genesis (4); Houston (3); Memorial (5); WGC-Bridgestone (2) Jason Day … Farmers (7); Pebble Beach (3); Arnold Palmer (6); WGC-Match Play (10); Masters (4); PLAYERS (13); U.S. Open (2); Canadian (11); WGC-Bridgestone (9); PGA Championship (1); THE NORTHERN TRUST (8); Dell Technologies (5) Luke Donald … Honda (2); Valspar (3); Heritage (1) Tony Finau … Farmers (1); Valero (5); Memorial (3); Greenbrier (2); Canadian (4) Rickie Fowler … Waste Management (5); Honda (1; defending); Houston (4); Masters (8); Wells Fargo (7); PLAYERS (9); WGC-Bridgestone (3); THE NORTHERN TRUST (10); Dell Technologies (6) Bill Haas … Genesis (3); Valspar (4); WGC-Match Play (5); Wyndham (2) Brian Harman … Arnold Palmer (5); DEAN & DELUCA (4); John Deere (3) Charley Hoffman … Genesis (6); Heritage (7); Houston (5); Valero (1); DEAN & DELUCA (4); Travelers (2); Canadian (3) J.B. Holmes … Farmers (6); Waste Management (1); Pebble Beach (4); Genesis (3); Houston (2); Wells Fargo (7); Greenbrier (5) Billy Horschel … Honda (2); Arnold Palmer (5); Valero (3); St. Jude (1); TOUR Championship (4) Charles Howell III … Farmers (2); Valspar (4); Houston (7) Chris Kirk … Valero (4); PLAYERS (3); DEAN & DELUCA (2) Russell Knox … Honda (6); Heritage (2); PLAYERS (8); Dell Technologies (7) Martin Laird … Farmers (6); Waste Management (5); Genesis (3); Valero (7); Barracuda (1) Marc Leishman … Arnold Palmer (3; defending); DEAN & DELUCA (7); Memorial (5); Travelers (2); Open Championship (1) Jamie Lovemark … Arnold Palmer (3) Hideki Matsuyama … Waste Management (1; two-time defending); Genesis (7); Arnold Palmer (11); Masters (5); Wells Fargo (13); PLAYERS (9); Memorial (10); U.S. Open (6); WGC-Bridgestone (8; defending) Phil Mickelson … Waste Management (8); Pebble Beach (6); WGC-Mexico (9); Houston (3); Masters (4); Wells Fargo (2); St. Jude (1); Open Championship (5) Francesco Molinari … Arnold Palmer (1); PLAYERS (2) Ryan Palmer … Waste Management (5); Valero (1); DEAN & DELUCA (2); St. Jude (6) Jon Rahm … Farmers (defending) Patrick Reed … Pebble Beach (4); Valspar (6); Travelers (5); PGA Championship (8); Wyndham (7); THE NORTHERN TRUST (9); Dell Technologies (2) Justin Rose … Genesis (5); Arnold Palmer (3); Masters (1); Wells Fargo (4); PLAYERS (9); Memorial (6); Open Championship (8); WGC-Bridgestone (7); TOUR Championship (2) Brandt Snedeker … Farmers (1); Waste Management (9); Pebble Beach (2); WGC-Mexico (13); Arnold Palmer (12); Masters (7); Heritage (10); DEAN & DELUCA (11); U.S. Open (5); Travelers (6); Canadian (3); Wyndham (4) Brendan Steele … Waste Management (2); Honda (5); Valero (6); Wells Fargo (7); Travelers (3) Kevin Streelman … Pebble Beach (4); Wells Fargo (3); Memorial (1); Travelers (2) Jimmy Walker … Farmers (3); Pebble Beach (2); Genesis (5); Valero (6); Greenbrier (8); Dell Technologies (7) Gary Woodland … Farmers (4); Honda (6); Wells Fargo (5); Barracuda (1); Dell Technologies (3)

Click here to read the full article…