Presidental putting tip working wonders for Herman

It has been a successful month for several players scheduled to compete in the 2018 QBE Shootout, including a double-celebration on Sunday at the LPGA’s CME Group Tour Championship and PGA TOUR’s RSM Classic. Lexi Thompson won the LPGA’s season-ending event in Naples by four strokes on Sunday marking the sixth consecutive year that Thompson has won at least once, extending the longest such active streak on the LPGA. With the win, Thompson climbs to #5 in the world. In Sea Island, Georgia, Charles Howell III won for the first time in 11 years with a playoff victory and moved to No. 1 in the FedExCup standings. Both are scheduled to compete in the QBE Shootout in two weeks—Thompson with Tony Finau and Howell with Luke List. PGA TOUR rookie Cameron Champ will replace Kevin Chappell, who had to withdraw due to injury. Champ’s season is off to a strong start with a win at the Sanderson Farms Championship at the end of October, a T10 at the Mayakoba Golf Classic and a 6th place finish at the RSM Classic on Sunday. Champ, already being mentioned as the top candidate for Rookie of the Year on the PGA TOUR, will be paired with Kevin Kisner. The week after Champ won, Bryson DeChambeau earned his fourth TOUR victory in 2018 with a win at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. Ranked #5 in the world, he will be paired with Kevin Na in a couple weeks. With these four individual titles, QBE Shootout participants have dominated the golf calendar on the PGA TOUR and LPGA as of late. Tickets are currently on sale for the 30th anniversary of the QBE Shootout which will be held December 5 – 9 at Tiburon Golf Club at The Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort, Naples. Prices start at $30 for grounds tickets. Popular hospitality venues, the Naples Beach Brew House and Greg Norman Estates Shark Club are available for $90 and $300, respectively.

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Even when the narrative of wind coming to the defense of a golf course is promoted into the headline, it’s still relative. Legitimate inclement weather tore the dome off last year’s CareerBuilder Challenge. Early-tournament rain was followed by moderate-to-gusty winds throughout the tournament. Daytime high temperatures settled in the low 60s. Yet, Hudson Swafford still manufactured 20-under 268 en route to his breakthrough victory and runner-up Adam Hadwin spun a 59 at La Quinta Country Club in the third round. This week’s field of 156 may need an additional layer of clothing in the morning, but it won’t be annoyed further. More on the forecast, the three courses in the rotation and other nuggets beneath the ranking. Power Rankings: CareerBuilder Challenge RANK PLAYER COMMENT Concluded 2017 with victory at the DP World Tour Championship and began 2018 with a runner-up finish in his debut at the Sentry TOC. Second appearance at CareerBuilder (T34, 2017). Knock knock! The red-hot lefty has four top fives and a solo eighth in five starts this season. Since 2016 at CareerBuilder, he’s finished a respective T11 and T3, both at 18-under 270. What’s not to love about his form? Atop the FedExCup standings with two wins and another two top 10s. Third appearance at CareerBuilder, so familiarity is another asset. Scored 63-65 on the weekend at Waialae and placed T4 for his fourth top 10 and seventh top 20 since August. Most recent of four top 20s at the CareerBuilder was a T17 in 2016. Bracketed holidays with a T4 at RSM and a T10 at Sony where he co-led with an opening 63. Seeking redemption at CareerBuilder. Sat T8 through 54 holes last year but finished T21. Won here in 2016 and finished T25 in his title defense. Opened 2018 with a T11 at Kapalua and T18 at Waialae, ranking a respective fifth and 18th in strokes gained: putting. Opened and closed a 4-for-4 fall with top 10s. Has seven top 10s since a career-best-matching T3 at last year’s CareerBuilder; placed T14 the year prior. Third on TOUR in strokes gained. The 2014 champ is in his sixth straight appearance; last year’s T12 is his second-best finish. Polished off 2017 with a T10 at DP World, a T5 at the Hero and the birth of his second child. Off since a T15 at the WGC-HSBC Champions in late October. Opened 2017-18 with a T3 at the Safeway. Two-time CareerBuilder champ; T3-T21 here on current rotation. Perfect in six starts this season with three top 10s. T4 at Waialae; led the field in fairways hit and ranked second in strokes gained: putting. Top 10s at CareerBuilder in 2013 and 2014. This event rolls around at a time when the scuffling 35-year-old can really use it. All-time earnings leader here has two wins among eight top 20s, including in each of the last four editions. Settled for a T32 at Waialae despite four red numbers. Launched into this season with a pair of top 20s and a T4. He’s gone T11-T12 at the CareerBuilder since 2016. The 36-year-old continues to glide in a groove. Last week’s T18 was his seventh consecutive top 25 and 12th in his last 16 starts. T17 (2016) and T12 (2017) at CareerBuilder. A 62 on Sunday at Waialae was just one round but it was impeccably timed. Now carries disappointment-fueled motivation of a P2 into CareerBuilder where he’s 3-for-3 with two top 20s. First start as a father after son was born on Dec. 22 and does so in an event where he’s 5-for-5 with a pair of runner-up finishes. Closed out the fall with a T17 at the RSM. Defending champion Hudson Swafford, Kevin Kisner, Austin Cook and Zach Johnson will be among the notables in Tuesday’s Fantasy Insider. For the third straight year, PGA WEST’s Stadium Course, PGA WEST’s Nicklaus Tournament Course and La Quinta CC share duties as hosts of the CareerBuilder Challenge. They comprise the 13th combination of 12 courses used for the tournament since 1987. This is the seventh edition since the 90-hole competition was abandoned. Every golfer in the field pairs with an amateur. Together with another pro-am combo, the foursomes will play each course once until the 54-hole cut of low 70 and ties falls for the professionals. If more than 78 survive, only the low 60 and ties will play the final round held at the Stadium Course. (The leading three low-net and low-gross amateurs also will tee it up in the finale to determine their champion.) In 2016, the cut fell at 9-under 207, but in the more challenging conditions last year, those at 5-under 211 and lower advanced. Going back to the fourth edition of the tournament in 1963, all courses in the rotation have been par 72s. Each of the current trio features the standard four par 3s and four par 5s. La Quinta is the shortest at 7,060 yards, but length doesn’t distinguish one course from another. This tournament is always about piling up scoring opportunities and converting on those chances. However, La Quinta has undergone some enhancements that will toughen its test a bit. Fairway bunkering at the par-4 first and 17th holes have been updated; they should generate pause off both tees. Over four dozen trees planted across the property create new sightlines as targets and the potential for modified shot shapes into greens. And the green at the par-3 15th hole may appear the same to those who are returning, but it was rebuilt entirely since last year. Years ago, La Quinta usually yielded the highest scoring average among the tracks in the rotation, but the Stadium Course has assumed that role and with ease. Tuesday’s Fantasy Insider will examine how scoring has evolved and advise how gamers should adjust. It also will include how the weather here shapes our strategy. After a Chamber of Commerce opening round, a bit of energy will impact play on Friday. Winds will kick up a bit before abating on the weekend, but daytime highs will be stuck in the 60s. ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE PGATOUR.COM’s Fantasy Columnist Rob Bolton will be filing his usual staples leading up to this week’s event. Look for the following columns this week. MONDAY: Rookie Ranking, Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Medical Extensions, Power Rankings TUESDAY*: Sleepers, Fantasy Insider, Facebook Live WEDNESDAY: One & Done; Champions One & Done primer * – Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO, which also publishes on Tuesdays  

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Facing one of the most delicate shots in the game – a pitch off the putting surface over the ridge that bisects the 17th green – Gary Woodland taps into the resolve and positivity of a friend (Amy “I got thisâ€� Bockerstette) and stays cool under pressure from beginning to end to win the U.S. Open by three over two-time defending champion Brooks Koepka.  Welcome to the Monday Finish, where Woodland converted a 54-hole lead/co-lead into a victory for the first time in eight tries on the PGA TOUR, and signaled he has reached a whole new level of excellence as he jumped to fifth in the FedExCup. FIVE OBSERVATIONS 1. Woodland is one-dimensional no more. With his broad back and an athlete’s swagger, Woodland made no secret of his competitive advantage over the course of his first 244 starts on TOUR. He was strong. He was long. Now he’s a lot more than that. “It was just learning how to play golf,â€� the popular winner said after not only hanging onto his one-shot lead but extending it to three by the time the day was done. There were plenty of reasons to doubt Woodland, starting with his seven failures to close out 54-hole leads/co-leads, extending to his streaky putting, and grinding to a halt at his pedestrian record at Pebble. (He shot 76-76 to miss the cut at the 2010 U.S. Open there, and had missed three cuts in four starts at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the other one a T5 in 2017.) But this really was not the same guy. Woodland, 35, was unrelenting in his quest to improve. He already had one of the best coaches in the game in his corner in Butch Harmon, but found another in Pete Cowan, and yet another in putting specialist Phil Kenyon. It was his work on the greens that stood out most as he captured his first major in his 31st career attempt. He made highlights with a 42-foot par save at the 14th hole Saturday, but was just as solid Sunday, even when his work on the greens meant swinging a sand wedge on 17. In the end, Woodland made just four bogeys all week, tying a U.S. Open record, and was a career-best 2nd in Strokes Gained: Putting (+8.3).  For more on how Woodland became a complete player, click here. 2. It all started when he changed everything. “You look at guys that are successful,â€� Woodland told the PGATOUR.COM prior to defending his title at the Waste Management Phoenix Open earlier this season, “and you ask yourself: What are they doing that I’m not?â€� And by “guysâ€� he meant more than golfers. Frustrated by injuries and looking to change things up, he called friend Ray Allen, then with the Miami Heat. “Ray told me to come to Miami to come check out this guy named David Alexander,â€� Woodland said. Alexander founded DBC Fitness, which stands for Dumbbells, Barbells and Cables, and boasts a deep roster of star athletes. DBC reshaped Woodland’s workouts, but also the way he ate, hydrated and even traveled. He even moved to South Florida (Delray Beach), which had the added benefit of facilitating further skull sessions with Alexander. “It’s just changed everything,â€� Woodland said. For more on Woodland’s decision to change everything, click here. 3. The Amy factor was huge. The final piece of the puzzle was attitude, and there was some kismet involved in how that one came together. Woodland played a hole with Special Olympics athlete Amy Bockerstette at the Waste Management at TPC Scottsdale, and after coaching herself up with self-talk (“I got thisâ€�) Bockerstette made a par that went viral on social media. Woodland made a friend who turned into more than that: an inspiration. Whenever things got tight at Pebble, and there were no shortage of such times, starting when Koepka birdied four of the first five holes ahead of him, he repeated those words from Amy in Phoenix: I got this. “She’s meant everything for me from a mental standpoint,â€� he said. For more on how Amy fueled Woodland’s major breakthrough, click here. 4. Mighty Koepka just keeps on rolling. Before he won his fourth major at the PGA Championship at Bethpage Black, Koepka said he didn’t see why he shouldn’t aim for at least 10 major victories. At the time his prediction likely struck a few listeners as perhaps a bit over-ambitious. But now—did he aim too low? Koepka electrified fans with his hot start Sunday (he cooled and signed for a 68) and became the first player to shoot four rounds in the 60s at a U.S. Open and not win. He has now finished either first or second in the last four majors, and doesn’t seem to be going away. “It doesn’t sting,â€� said Koepka, who after birdies at four of the first five holes went 1 over the rest of the way. “I played great. Nothing I could do. Gary played great for four days. … He deserves it; he’s worked hard and I’m happy for him.â€�   5. Rose, McIlroy rue missed opportunities. Reigning FedExCup champion Justin Rose started the day just a shot off the lead but struggled from tee to green and did well to limit the damage to a final-round 74 (T3). “I didn’t have my “A” game this week,â€� said Rose, who gave a memorable congratulatory fist-bump to Woodland after the latter player had hit perhaps the shot of the tournament on 17. “And to contend in a major with no game, really, I take the positive from that…â€� Rory McIlroy, coming off a rousing victory at the RBC Canadian Open, had only an outside shot and needed to shoot a magical round. Instead, he doomed his chances with a double-bogey at the second hole, his first of several mistakes on the day, as he shot 72 to finish T9. FIVE INSIGHTS 1. Woodland was just too good on the greens, ranking +8.29 in Strokes Gained: Putting. That gave him a significant advantage over runner-up Koepka (56th, +0.24). 2. Koepka distinguished himself, among other ways, by ranking first in Greens in Regulation (54/72) and T5 in Driving Distance (310.80). But Woodland was right there with him, ranking second in Greens in Regulation (52/72) and also T5 in Driving Distance. 3. The last 10 U.S. Opens have given us seven first-time major winners. Woodland, Koepka and Jordan Spieth are the only players to win a major by three or more shots in the last three seasons. 4. One reason for McIlroy’s inability to carry his form from the RBC Canadian Open (runaway victory) to the U.S. Open (72, T9): putting. He went from +2.80 in Strokes Gained: Putting on Thursday to -2.98 in that stat on Sunday, and ranked 54th for the week. 5. Victor Hovland (67, 4 under, T12) became the first player to win low-amateur honors at the Masters and the U.S. Open in the same season since 1998. The reigning U.S. Amateur champ will turn pro at the Travelers Championship this week. WYNDHAM REWARDS The Wyndham Rewards Top 10 is in its first season and adds another layer of excitement to the FedExCup Regular Season. The top 10 players at the end of the FedExCup Regular Season will earn bonus payouts from the Wyndham Rewards Top 10. Matt Kuchar (73, T16) remains No. 1, while U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland jumped from 9th to 5th. Meanwhile, friend and playing partner Justin Rose (74, T3), the reigning FedExCup champion, fought his game but nevertheless moved up a spot from 10th to 9th.

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