Reed ends title drought at Northern Trust

Alan Bratton liked the low numbers. Scores are usually the first data that coaches consult when seeking new recruits, but these were outliers that indicated Bratton was looking at special players. Rickie Fowler was 15 years old and still wearing braces when he shot 62 to win Southern California’s high school championship in 2004. He was the first freshman since Tiger Woods to win that title. RELATED: Fans at home will be able to contribute to TaylorMade Driving Relief’s COVID-19 relief efforts thanks to PGA TOUR Charities’ online and Text-To-Give donation platforms powered by GoFundMe Charity. Click here to donate. MORE: TaylorMade Driving Relief to benefit COVID-19 relief efforts | Live golf set to return | Seminole Golf Club ready for its close-up This was an earlier time, though, before the widespread adoption of smartphones and social media, so it was still possible for such a sensation to stay a secret. Fowler hadn’t competed much outside California, so Bratton, then the assistant golf coach at Oklahoma State, thought he was ahead of the curve when he watched Fowler at the Western Junior. He kept his distance to avoid tipping off other coaches. There was just one problem. Fowler won the tournament. With a final-round 64, including a birdie on 18, for a one-stroke win. The secret was out. A few years later, Bratton heard about another special player going low. The tip came from a recruit who casually mentioned about playing a tournament where the winner shot 61 and won by 13. Bratton, who had become Oklahoma State’s head coach in 2013, needed to know the name of the kid who dusted the field by more than a dozen strokes. It was Matthew Wolff. While their stints in Stillwater, Oklahoma, were separated by a decade, ties run deep between Cowboys. Fowler returns to his alma mater often, playing golf with each member of the team and giving the players his phone number. Wolff’s team had dinner at Fowler’s house when they were in town for a tournament. Fowler was on hand to congratulate Wolff when he won. So it made sense for Fowler and Wolff to be teammates when the TaylorMade Driving Relief match was in the works. They’ll need to tap into their penchant for shooting low scores if they want to succeed May 17 at Seminole Golf Club. Their opponents in this four-ball skins game – Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson — also have something in common. They’re the current and former World No. 1s. “I’ve seen some fan reaction saying how much of a favorite Rory and DJ are, so Matt and I are going in as underdogs,â€� Fowler says. “We’re ready to bring the upset.â€� Team chemistry could be an equalizer for the former Cowboys, though McIlroy revealed recently that he and Johnson had discussed teaming for this year’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Fowler and Wolff met when Fowler returned to campus for homecoming. “We clicked right off the bat,â€� Wolff says. For obvious reasons. Both developed unique swings while growing up on public golf courses in Southern California. For Fowler, it was on the Murrieta Valley Golf Range, which co-owners Bill Teasdall and Barry McDonnell ran out of a single-story portable building on land that used to be a horse stable. McDonnell became Fowler’s first teacher. Wolff spent his formative years taking lessons from George Gankas at Westlake Golf Course, a 5,000-yard layout with artificial-turf mats on its driving range. In junior golf, both players heard critics say they should change their unique swings. Neither heeded the advice. Bratton liked that each player developed his own swing and wasn’t afraid to stick to it, even in the face of criticism. He says he could recruit both players with his ears, not his eyes, because of the quality of the sound at impact. “I love to look for natural swings,â€� Bratton says. “It doesn’t mean it has to be different, but I certainly want a kid who understands how to make adjustments on their own. You see a lot of kids who are trying to do something that someone else told them to do. There’s incredible instruction out there, but sometimes kids don’t understand or try to do something that’s not natural to them.â€� Though Fowler can’t match Wolff’s swing speed, Bratton says there are similarities to their playing styles, as well. “Once they make up their mind, they wind up and go,â€� says their former coach. “They look like they’re having fun when they play.â€� For each fan donation that is made using a Mastercard, Mastercard has announced a donation match program through which they will match the first $250,000 of all fan donations made through the PGA TOUR Charities’ GoFundMe platform. Click here for more.

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Sometimes he won, sometimes he lost, sometimes he merely proved a point. Tiger Woods has a history of going low no matter the course, but his lowest scores in the majors have spoken loudest. He shot a 63 that could have, should have, would have been one better at the 2007 PGA Championship, the ball falling partially into the hole before seeming to change its mind and lipping out. The round was instantly dubbed a 62 1/2; Woods shrugged and won the Wanamaker Trophy anyway. Other thunderously low scores in the majors have set up yet more victories. They’ve also made believers out of even hardened skeptics. Colin Montgomerie was one of the few who remained unconvinced that Woods was destined to win the 1997 Masters Tournament – until Montgomerie was paired with Woods in the third round, and Woods demolished him, 65-74. Montgomerie admitted he’d been wrong, no one else had a chance to win the next day, and, of course, Woods made history. Still other great rounds have left him just short of glory. And one of his 10 best, the day after a freak storm wiped out his chances of winning the 2002 Open and the Grand Slam, was for pride but little else. The list below looks at Woods’ 10 career rounds of 65 or lower in the majors, starting with the personal record he set at the site of this week’s PGA Championship. 1. 63, 2007 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP (2nd rd.) Southern Hills Country Club, Tulsa, Okla. End of round position: 1st (from T23) Finish: Won The hottest major on record – the thermometer hit 101 in the first two rounds – also was the site of one of Woods’ personal records. His 63 in the second round of the 2007 PGA Championship at Southern Hills remains his lowest round in a major. At the time, no one had gone lower in one of golf’s Grand Slam events. Ten years later, Branden Grace shot a third-round 62 at the 2017 Open Championship, but Woods was millimeters from beating him to it. He raised his putter as his 15-foot birdie putt on Southern Hills’ uphill 18th neared the hole, only to watch his ball ring the cup. “I knew if I made that putt on the last hole it would have been a nice little record to have,” Woods said. “A 62 1/2 is all right.” It was the day’s lowest round by three shots. The scorecard shows he made eight birdies and only one bogey; what it doesn’t show is that half his birdie putts came from 6 feet or less. He also sank an 8-footer, chipped in once and holed two 20-foot birdie putts. With the sweltering heat sending the ball soaring long distances, Woods only used driver on one of the holes he birdied, the 653-yard, par-5 fifth hole. He completely changed the narrative. An opening-round 71 led to questions about whether the Perry Maxwell design, with its tight, doglegged fairways, fit his game. Some called the course a “Tiger-tamer,” for Woods had done little of note in two previous appearances at Southern Hills. He finished T21 in the 30-man TOUR Championship in 1996 – his father, Earl, was hospitalized before the second round – and T12 in the 2001 U.S. Open, which marked an end to his run of four consecutive major triumphs. He was 12 over par for his nine competitive rounds at Southern Hills entering the second round of the 2007 PGA. He started that day T23, six back of surprise leader Graeme Storm and four back of John Daly. The second round, though, changed everything. Woods’ 63 gave him a two-shot lead over Oklahoma State alum Scott Verplank. Consecutive 69s on the weekend gave Woods a two-shot win over Woody Austin, while Ernie Els finished alone in third, three shots back. With the win, the 13th of his 15 major titles, Woods improved to 8-0 when holding the 36-hole lead in a major. 2. 64, 2018 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP (4th rd.) Bellerive Country Club, St. Louis, Missouri End of round position: 2nd (from T6) Finish: 2nd It felt like history in the making. On a sweltering Sunday in St. Louis, amongst a never-ending sea of spectators, Woods turned even the staunchest disbelievers into cheerleaders. A decade since his last major victory and after a series of back operations that left his career in question, the 2018 PGA was where Woods shot the lowest final round in a major in his historic career. Starting the final round four shots behind Brooks Koepka, Woods made eight final-round birdies and matched the low score of the day. Bellerive erupted into paroxysms of joy, the massive gallery roaring with delight at vintage Tiger. Woods shot 32 on the front despite not hitting a fairway, punctuating it with a 173-yard approach from the gallery to birdie No. 9 and send shockwaves around the course. Birdies at 12 and 13 created a crowd crush so dense that there were fears for fan safety. Woods was within a stroke before a bogey at 14, coupled with Koepka’s birdies at 15 and 16, led to Koepka’s third major victory. He now had a Wanamaker Trophy to go with his two U.S. Open triumphs. Six weeks later, Woods won the TOUR Championship for his first victory in five years, and not long after that he would win his next major start, at the 2019 Masters. 3. 64, 1997 OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP (3rd rd.) Royal Troon G.C., Troon, Scotland End of round position: T8 (from T49) Finish: T24 Woods came into his first Open as a professional with no shortage of buzz after his game-changing Masters win four months earlier. The U.K. tabloids embraced the Tiger frenzy with headlines like, “Claws Celebre,” but with Woods already making some swing changes – coach Butch Harmon followed his every shot of the Wednesday practice round – it was an open question how he might do. Sure enough, with his swing a work in progress, he was more mistake-prone than usual. He seemingly doomed his chances with a triple bogey on the way to a first-round 72, and a quadruple bogey, including a whiff with a sand wedge, en route to a second-round 74. He made the cut with just a shot to spare. The greats, though, can never be counted out, and Woods dazzled with a third-round 64, which tied Greg Norman’s course record and vaulted Woods from T49 to inside the top 10. At the par-5 16th, he hit driver off the deck to 15 feet to set up an eagle. By the end of the round, after a chip-in at the par-3 17th, Woods had taken just 24 putts – including just 10 on the back nine – and sprinkled in seven birdies against two bogeys. He would go into the last round with an outside shot, eight behind Jesper Parnevik. Asked if he could win, Woods said, “I believe I still can.” Alas, he shot a final-round 74, with another triple bogey, this time at the famed Postage Stamp par-3 8th hole, to finish T24. 4. 65, 2006 PGA Championship (3rd rd.) Medinah CC (No. 3), Chicago, Ill. End of round position: T1 (from T5) Finish: Won After his Open Championship victory at Royal Liverpool one month prior, memorably hitting just one driver all week, Woods returned to the site of his 1999 PGA Championship duel against Sergio Garcia (Woods won by one) in search of back-to-back major titles for the first time since 2002. Woods started steady with rounds of 69-68, one stroke back of four co-leaders into the weekend. The 30-year-old turned on the jets in Saturday’s third-round, shooting 7-under 65; he played the par-3s in 3 under, made four birdies in a five-hole stretch on the back nine, and moved into a co-lead with Luke Donald at 14 under. Playing alongside childhood friend Chris Riley, Woods tied the course record that was set by Mike Weir earlier that day. He proceeded to pull away from the field in Sunday’s final round, carding 4-under 68 for an 18-under total and five-stroke win over Shaun Micheel. It marked Woods’ 12th major title. 5. 65, 2006 OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP (2nd rd.) The Royal Liverpool Golf Club, Hoylake, England End of round position: 1st (from T2) Finish: Won In his first Open Championship since the loss of his father Earl, Woods produced an emotional victory for the ages at Royal Liverpool. His 7-under 65 in the second round, which included a hole-out eagle with a 4-iron, sent him from one behind Graeme McDowell to one in front of Ernie Els. Woods retained that lead through 54 holes (with Sergio Garcia and Chris DiMarco joining Els a shot back) before beating DiMarco by two, a win that brought Woods to tears in the arms of his caddie, Steve Williams. The win was also known for Woods’ clinical dissection of the dusty links, which were dried-out amid a heatwave. He left driver in the bag to avoid the pot bunkers, leaving himself longer clubs into the greens. His Friday 65 included an incredible 50-foot birdie on No. 8, but that putt from another zip code wasn’t even the highlight of the day. That came on the extremely difficult dogleg par-4 14th. Woods once again gave up distance for safety off the tee, leaving himself 200 yards to the green. But he hit a perfect 4-iron that bounced three times before disappearing into the cup for eagle. He never looked back. “Usually, it’s just a case of getting a 4 and getting out of there,” Woods said at the time. “I couldn’t see the flag and was just trying to get the ball on the green, but I hit it flush and it went in.” That 65 remains a record at Royal Liverpool in The Open, a mark he now shares with eight others. 6. 65, 2005 MASTERS (3rd rd.) Augusta National G.C., Augusta, Georgia End of round position: 1st (from 3rd) Finish: Won Woods was still retooling his swing under Hank Haney when he arrived at the Masters in 2005; his winless streak in the majors neared three years. His first round here didn’t begin well, either, as he putted a ball into Rae’s Creek at the par-5 13th en route to a 74. It would be the highest opening round of any of his major triumphs. Everything changed Saturday, when, thanks to weather delays, Woods played his second round, a 6-under 66 that got him back in the mix. He also played nine holes of his third round before darkness halted play again, making five birdies to cut Chris DiMarco’s lead from six to four shots. All told, Woods played 27 holes that day, making 12 birdies against just one three-putt bogey. After closing the first nine with three consecutive birdies, Woods split the 10th fairway before the horn blew. “Chris could have easily gone off and run away with this tournament,” he said. “At least now I’ve got a fighting chance.” He completed the round Sunday morning, making birdies on Nos. 10-13 to run his string of consecutive birdies to seven, tying a tournament record set by Steve Pate in 1999 (he also birdied Nos. 7-13). Woods’ third-round 65 gave him the lead by three going into the final round. That round was a doozy. Woods chipped in at the par-3 16th hole, one of the most replayed shots of all time, and rolled in a 15-footer for birdie on the first playoff hole to beat DiMarco for his ninth major title. 7. 65, 2002 OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP (4th rd.) Muirfield, Muirfield, Scotland End of round position: T28 (from T67) Finish: T28 Most of Woods’ best rounds in the majors have either led to victory of left him oh, so close. Not this one. Although his 6-under 65 (one eagle, five birdies, one bogey) in the final round matched the low round of the week, all it did was move Woods from T67 to T28. Hardly anything to write home about. No, there were two main stories this week, neither of them pertaining to Tiger’s 65. The first big story was his shot at the calendar year Grand Slam, with Woods having come into the Open having won the Masters and U.S. Open. That made him the first player to successfully clear the first two hurdles of the Grand Slam since Jack Nicklaus in 1972. Woods shot 70-68 the first two rounds, he said he was playing well, and all systems were set to keep it going on the weekend. The second big story was the weather. Stewart Cink, Padraig Harrington and others have called the crud that rolled in for the late tee times Saturday afternoon as the worst they ever played in, and Woods would likely give them no argument. He shot 81, one of 10 scores in the 80s that day and the first time Woods had failed to break 80 as a professional. His chances at the Grand Slam had all but ended. His final-round 65 was payback, and proof that he really was playing well despite the freak storm. 8. 65, 2000 U.S. OPEN (1st rd.) Pebble Beach Golf Links, Pebble Beach, Calif. End of round position: 1st Event finish: Won Unsatisfied with the way the ball was coming off his putter, Woods spent some extra time on the practice green Wednesday. Boy did it pay off. Of his six opening-round birdies, four were of the kick-in variety, but a handful of mid-length par saves were equally crucial in this tone-setter. He only got better from there, showing total command from tee to green and making just about everything he looked at – a frightening combination to his peers. Woods took a 10-shot lead into the final round – “I knew I had no chance,” said Ernie Els, who led the chase pack – and at 12 under par overall authored a gaudy, 15-shot victory over Els and Miguel Angel Jimenez. Woods’ performance that week is considered perhaps the best golf ever played, none better than what he summoned in the opening round. He hit 11 of 14 fairways, and just 12 greens in regulation, and was positively automatic with the putter – a sign of things to come. “It’s unconscionable to me that he can make that many putts,” Hale Irwin said, “but he did.” 9. 65, 1998 OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP (1st rd.) Royal Birkdale Golf Club, Southport, England End of round position: T1 Event finish: 3rd It was a rare week in which Woods took the first-round lead and did not win. In light winds and sunshine in the opening round, he scrambled brilliantly for pars on the opening two holes, the latter after thrashing a 9-iron out of near knee-high rough to the middle of the green. The young and powerful Woods almost made a mockery of the 411-yard ninth, moving photographers and fans out of his line before blasting his ball over a diabolical bunker that guards the corner of the dogleg. His 380-yard tee ball left just a flick-wedge to the green. It was a shake-your-head moment for most, more proof the young phenom was changing the game. Three more birdies on the back side were countered by two bogeys, the last coming on 18 to give up sole possession of the lead. A lipped out 3-footer on 12 would prove costly. His opening 5-under 65 was enough to share the lead with John Huston, but the field would be blown off the map over the next two rounds, with Woods shooting 73-77. In an incredible turnaround, a final-round 66 from Woods – one of just nine sub-par rounds that Sunday – brought him all the way back to within one of a playoff, where his pal Mark O’Meara bested Brian Watts for the Claret Jug. 10. 65, 1997 MASTERS (3rd rd.) Augusta National G.C., Augusta, Ga. End of round position: 1st (from 1st) Event finish: Won As Tiger-mania built to a crescendo in Woods’ first Masters as a professional, the 21-year-old produced a nearly flawless ball-striking effort on Saturday at Augusta National, leaving all others behind. Woods hit 13 of 14 fairways, 17 of 18 greens and carded a bogey-free 65 that extended a three-stroke lead over Colin Montgomerie to a nine-stroke lead over Constantino Rocca. As the patrons roared at every turn, Woods methodically went about his business, making birdies on three of four par-5 holes and adding yet more birdies on Nos. 5, 7, 11 and 18. His 65 convinced even the last remaining skeptics he would win. Prior to Saturday’s third round, Montgomerie remarked that Woods’ lack of major-championship experience could prove a factor on the weekend. After their Saturday pairing, though, in which a humbled Montgomerie was beat by nine strokes, the Scotsman entered the press room to opine, “There is no chance humanly possible that Tiger is just going to lose this tournament.” He was correct, as Woods proceeded to shoot a final-round 69 for a 12-stroke runaway, his first of 15 major titles. “It was the easiest 65 I’ve ever seen,” Montgomerie said later.

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Unless you’re in a dogfight for your league title in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, THE NORTHERN TRUST is the last hope for chasers. The first event of the FedExCup Playoffs is the last tournament of the 2018-19 season with a cut. This means that all golfers in all lineups, assuming they’re saved and barring mid-round withdrawals and disqualifications, will post numbers in every round of the BMW Championship and the TOUR Championship. And since fantasy scoring is relatively even in the short-term, there won’t be any walk-offs among those of us with but a chip and a chair entering the Playoffs. As has been the case for weeks, my lineup is completely different than that of my target, Ben Everill, the front-runner in the PGA TOUR Experts League. However, because his margin is more than 300 points, my only reasonable chance to make a dent is if no fewer than five of his guys missed the cut at Liberty National and no more than two of mine are snipped. That could translate into a 300-point swing before we all but cancel each other out in the final two events. If you’re in a Playoffs pool or just curious about historical trends in the series, take a read of my special Playoffs Power Rankings. It’ll help understand for whom starts should be rationed and how the field of 30 at East Lake will be constructed. With that feature published, the next special assignment will be my full-membership fantasy ranking. While billed as such, it’s more of an introduction and guide. It will run before A Military Tribute at the Greenbrier opens the 2019-20 season on Sept. 12. All other complementary pages will turn over during the brief offseason as well. This grouping consists of the Rookie Ranking, Qualifiers, Medical Extensions and Korn Ferry Tour Graduate Reshuffle. Please continue to monitor the FANTASY page or select any of these pages via the MENU and Fantasy slider at the top. PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf My roster for THE NORTHERN TRUST (in alphabetical order): Patrick Cantlay Rickie Fowler Brooks Koepka Rory McIlroy Jon Rahm Justin Rose You’ll find my starters in Expert Picks. Others to consider for each category (in alphabetical order): Scoring: Jason Day; Dustin Johnson; Hideki Matsuyama; Sungjae Im; Ryan Palmer; Andrew Putnam; Patrick Reed; Xander Schauffele; Adam Scott; Webb Simpson; Justin Thomas Driving: Jason Day; Tommy Fleetwood; Tyrrell Hatton; Charles Howell III; Sungjae Im; Matt Kuchar; Hideki Matsuyama; Joaquin Niemann; Louis Oosthuizen; Kyle Stanley Power Rankings Wild Card Xander Schauffele … Tough crowd. No, not the locals at THE NORTHERN TRUST, although if he plays poorly, he’ll probably hear a little heat; rather, the Power Rankings proper. He was the last cut but only because he didn’t factor in his last two starts. Still, he’s entering his third Playoffs as the 4-seed thanks to a massive season. He loves the brightest lights and never should be counted out. Draws Tiger Woods … There’s no reason not to believe in him, but his comments after missing the cut at Royal Portrush were telling. For as much as we’ve expected him to reinvent himself as a tee-to-green tactician – and he has in a big way – he’s still learning how to balance the professional with the personal. Back in the U.S. and committed to the Playoffs, opportunity is in the 28-seed’s grip to capture a third FedExCup title (and first in 10 years). He was the runner-up at Liberty National in 2009 and 2013, so he had little issue with the worst and the best of the course. Hideki Matsuyama … For different reasons, I’m chalking up each of his last three starts as anomalies, albeit consecutively, obviously. From the vagaries of The Open to his debut at TPC Southwind to what felt like a weird fit at Sedgefield (despite an endorsement in the Power Rankings that acknowledged three top 15s on the course), Liberty National sets up best of the four tracks because it caters to distance control and precision on approach. Plus, the 30-seed just doesn’t slump for long. Scott Piercy … No need to overanalyze a guy who does everything well. Terrific complement in every fantasy situation and in excellent position to advance to the TOUR Championship as the opening 26-seed. Bubba Watson … Presents coolly as a guy with nothing to lose as the 71-seed. It hasn’t been the most memorable of seasons with just three top 10s and no wins, but he’s in position to have a hot week like he has in so many editions of THE NORTHERN TRUST. Among his six top 15s in the tournament was a T13 at Liberty National in 2013, also a season in which he recorded three top 10s and didn’t record a victory. Ryan Palmer … Perfect in nine appearances in THE NORTHERN TRUST in the Playoffs, the last three of which resulted in a top 15, so he’s a proven hot starter. Also fresh off a pair of top 10s and another top 20 in his most recent five starts. The 24-seed is rising above his old profile as a streaky talent. As a 42-year-old who still can move it off the tee, he’s a consistent force who matches up well. Tony Finau … Filed under the category of cautiously optimistic, he’s deviated from consistently strong form over time to an all-or-nothing value, and that scares us. He doesn’t profile like that for long, and at least there’s good with the bad. At 16th in points, he’ll get to East Lake without much trouble, so there’s reason to invest in the opportunity to free-wheel it at Liberty National. Andrew Putnam … Since the PGA Championship, the 38-seed is 8-for-8 worldwide with a pair of top fives among four top 25s. He’s sixth on TOUR in Strokes Gained: Putting and 15th in putting: birdies-or-better. Charles Howell III … It’s always strange to think of him as a commodity at this time of year, but he’s back in form after a customary spring swoon. This one included a hip injury in May. Never bashful about taking advantages of the easiest tracks, he arrives 15th in points with a T23-T6-T22 burst in tow. Matthew Wolff … The locals are gonna love him, of course, and he’s held his own since the breakthrough victory at TPC Twin Cities. While he’s been busy, he’s still the shiny, new toy with everything to gain in his Playoffs debut. However, his first goal of making the cut as the 70-seed to advance might be his biggest challenge thus far as a professional. To steal the line from Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon, will Wolff permit the pleasure to exceed the pressure? Tyrrell Hatton … If he wasn’t inside the top 50 of the Official World Golf Ranking, he’d have been among my Sleepers in part because of that fact. Three top 10s among eight top 25s in his second straight season with a PGA TOUR card, the 27-year-old is 77th in points. Fades Bryson DeChambeau … The defending champion is seeded 18th despite a confounding few months of inconsistency blanketing consecutive top 10s a month ago. He’s also undergoing equipment changes. J.T. Poston … Watch, he’ll bogeyed his first hole in the opening round. I jest only because he went bogey-free en route to his breakthrough title at Sedgefield last week. It was tough to gauge his level of stress visually, but we should expect a letdown after the monumental achievement. Even though the objective will be to keep the pedal down and sustain form into his second Playoffs appearance – he opens 27th in points – the win was just his second top 25 in three months. What’s more, everything at this point is gravy. Shane Lowry … The conservative in me has to respect the banality of returning to competition after experiencing the thrill of winning The Open Championship near home. Not surprisingly, he pulled out early from two commitments since, but the lights have to go back on at some point. At 20th in the FedExCup, he’s in outstanding position to pay off the career achievement. For the record, he qualified for the Playoffs in 2016 but elected to play the European Tour. Phil Mickelson … If the NYC crowds can’t inspire him to end his extended slump, nothing will. He’s benefited by short rough and enough experience at Liberty National to feel as comfortable as anyone, not to mention a strong early portion of the season to sit 34th in points upon arrival, but the results haven’t been there for months. Gary Woodland … So much to love about the possibilities, but I want to see the 5-seed turn the page on the mini-slump that bridged his U.S. Open victory and birth of twin daughters. Jordan Spieth … Went in the books with the dubious distinction as one of the last victimized by the 54-hole/MDF cut provision at the Wyndham Championship. The rule ended at Sedgefield because it’s not in play during the Playoffs and it won’t continue in 2019-20. That he found himself in that grouping after sitting T12 at the midpoint reminds you of everything you need to know about his inconsistency all season. He’s 69th in points and he makes most cuts, so he sets up as nothing better than a contrarian if you can’t look away. Marc Leishman … No matter his opening position – this year 12th – the Aussie has been a notoriously slow starter in the Playoffs. He’s just 4-for-10 without a top 30 in THE NORTHERN TRUST. Sergio Garcia … The 65-seed hasn’t posted a top-50 finish in a full-field event in the U.S. in three months. He hasn’t appeared in THE NORTHERN TRUST in five years. This week’s commitment serves as his 15th start of 2018-19 and meets the membership minimum. It’s the fourth time in five seasons that he’s totaled exactly 15. Chez Reavie … A curious fit for Liberty National as the TOUR’s leader in fairways hit who also ranks T4 in proximity on approach. However, and although he’s the 14-seed, gamers have lost some faith after tumbling off the summit attained with victory at the Travelers in June. Kevin Na … Recently bothered by a sore neck, the 48-seed broke par in only one round at TPC Southwind (T43). It’s his only red number in seven rounds of a quiet summer since emerging victorious at Colonial. Brandt Snedeker … Simply put, and despite scoring 10-under 270 at Sedgefield, he didn’t deliver as the defending champion en route to a T39. Surprisingly, it was his putter that let him down, not his irons. He also missed the cut in 2013 at Liberty National. Seeded 33rd. Returning to Competition Jhonattan Vegas … Left the Barracuda Championship before his second round to attend the birth of his second child, Louis Alexander. He’s 80th in the FedExCup after a three-month drought, but he’s recorded three straight top 15s in THE NORTHERN TRUST. The 34-year-old elevated to a career season the first time the Nappy Factor took hold in March of 2016. Never underestimate its power. Notable WDs Paul Casey … The 8-seed just finished a three-week road trip with a T13 at Sedgefield, so he’s opted for rest and family time in advance of the BMW Championship. Rafa Cabrera Bello … Awaiting the birth of his first child. As the 59-seed, he’s in jeopardy of elimination. Henrik Stenson … If he didn’t open as low as the 85th seed, we could wonder if he’d appear, but he’s going to focus on prepping for the European Tour’s Scandinavian Invitation in his native Gothenburg, Sweden. It coincides with the TOUR Championship on Aug. 22-25. Sam Burns … As first noted in the Fantasy Insider for the week of the Barracuda Championship, he’s out indefinitely after breaking his ankle grabbing a rebound in a pickup basketball game. As the 89-seed, he cannot advance. Power Rankings Recap – Wyndham Championship Power Ranking  Golfer  Result 1  Webb Simpson  2nd 2  Brandt Snedeker  T39 3  Lucas Glover  T72 4  Billy Horschel  T6 5  Patrick Reed  T22 6  Hideki Matsuyama  MC 7  Scott Piercy  T36 8  Collin Morikawa  T31 9  Paul Casey  T13 10  Cameron Smith  MC 11  Rory Sabbatini  T6 12  Jordan Spieth  T78/MDF 13  Joaquin Niemann  T13 14  Martin Laird  MC 15  Sungjae Im  T6 Wild Card: Viktor Hovland  4th Sleepers Recap – Wyndham Championship Golfer  Result Bud Cauley  T22 Brice Garnett  T6 Doc Redman  MC Roger Sloan  T39 Sepp Straka  T39 Birthdays among active golfers on the PGA TOUR August 6 … none August 7 … Andrew Landry (32) August 8 … Webb Simpson (34) August 9 … Brett Wetterich (46); Curtis Luck (23) August 10 … Kenny Perry (59) August 11 … Morgan Hoffmann (30) August 12 … none

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