Rejoice in ‘out-of-nowhere’ winners like Nate Lashley, but appreciate they’ve prepped for such moments their entire lives

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OVERVIEW Justin Thomas spent the off-season testing new Titleist equipment; following Alabama football; tweeting about Tiger-versus-Phil; and looking forward to his new role as co-executive producer, with Rickie Fowler, of Golf Channel’s next installment of the college golf documentary Driven. When it’s time to lace up his spikes, though, you get the sense he’ll be ready. Thomas, 25, is coming off a season in which he won three times and made a deep run in the FedExCup Playoffs as he tried to become the first player to successfully defend his FedExCup title since its inception in 2007. He might have done it, too, but for a minor injury. Thomas “tweakedâ€� (his word) his right wrist on the 13th hole of the final round of the BMW Championship; taped it; worked only on his short game in the off-week; and could manage only a T7 at the TOUR Championship, leaving him 7th in the final FedExCup standings. Still, it was a strong effort; apart from week one of the season, he never dropped below ninth. “Anytime you win three times in a season, it’s still a pretty good season,â€� Thomas said at the CIMB Classic in October, when he finished T5 to kick off the 2018-19 season. “Obviously not winning a major was a big difference and not winning the FedExCup, but I played plenty well enough last year to win the same amount of times.â€� If there was a tournament he let slip through his fingers, it was the World Golf Championship-Mexico Championship, where he bogeyed the 172-yard 17th to lose to Phil Mickelson. – By Cameron Morfit Click here to see who else made the Top 30 list. BY THE NUMBERS FEDEXCUP UPDATE Current 2018-19 position: 63rd Playoff appearances: 4 TOUR Championship appearances: 3 Best FedExCup result: Won the FedExCup in the 2016-17 season SHOTLINK FUN FACT Justin Thomas ranked third last season in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green, outperforming the PGA TOUR field by +0.880 strokes per round. INSIDER INSIGHTS PGATOUR.COM’s Insiders offer their expert views on what to expect from Justin Thomas in 2019. TOUR INSIDER: Thomas is an exceptionally good iron player; his challenge now will be to elevate the other parts of his game from very good to great in order to match his iron play. His other challenge will be to reconfigure his goals after winning his first major (2017 PGA Championship), first WGC (WGC-Bridgestone Invitational) and first Presidents Cup over the last two seasons. The guess here is he’ll come up with something. — By Cameron Morfit FANTASY INSIDER: A year ago in this space (when he sat No. 1 fresh off winning the FedExCup), I advised caution in weekly formats due to his tendency to hit and miss more often than his peers. Not long thereafter, he cited himself that he wanted to eliminate the inconsistency. It sounded good in theory and gamers are all for improvement no matter the talent, but it’s still cringe-worthy because it can be like fixing what’s not broken. JT is a winner, pure and simple, but there are times when he’s just not feelin’ it, so be prepared to roll with those punches. He still warrants consideration to go first overall in draft leagues. — By Rob Bolton EQUIPMENT INSIDER: Thomas doesn’t tinker too much, but he was quick to switch into a new Titleist TS3 driver (9.5 degrees, with a Mitsubishi Diamana BF 60TX shaft) and a new Titleist TS3 fairway wood (Mitsubishi Tensei CK Blue 80TX shaft). The rest of his bag includes a 718 AP2 4-iron, 718 MB irons (5-9), his familiar Vokey SM5 (56 degrees) and SM6 wedges (48, 52 and 60 degrees) wedges, and the Scotty Cameron Circle T X5 putter he’s been playing since 2017. With a bag full of Titleist clubs, he also uses Titleist’s Pro V1x golf ball. Anytime Thomas decides to make a switch in 2019, whether it’s clubs, shafts or golf ball, it will be news. — By Andrew Tursky STYLE INSIDER: JT continues to hit all the right fashion notes. He excels at balancing the traditions of the game with classic threads and custom old school brogues with new school designs and fits. Look for Thomas to remain one of the best dressed players in the game in 2019. — By Greg Monteforte

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To quote a wise man, I’m a perfectionist with lowered expectations. Not everyone is on board with my philosophy to target top 10s. I see them as goals with top fives the bonuses and victories reasons to celebrate. That’s fine. At least you’re provided some premise for the picks. Meanwhile, there’s the relevance of long-range strategy. Occasionally, the golfer I like to win now might make more sense later in the context of the fantasy competition. Remember fantasy rule No. 3: Remain fluid. While this explains how I play the One & Done, especially early in a season, I still get after it in the additional events. This week’s Sanderson Farms Championship reserves space for 132 golfers, almost none of whom you’re going to miss in the remaining 41 tournaments of 2018-19. The only entrant who deserves pause is Martin Laird for the Barracuda Championship, but you’re not going to consider him long for the Sanderson Farms, anyway. Therefore, it’s a rare week when I’ll settle for a top 10. Lucas Glover is atop my Power Rankings. He’s popped on a number of occasions in recent week and you can’t rule out a level of comfort in this neck of the woods as a Southeasterner his entire life. Bill Haas, Chris Kirk and Hunter Mahan follow in order. Each is cut from a similar cloth as ball-strikers with impressive résumés. Haas and Kirk are among only four who appear in Future Possibilities below. The Country Club of Jackson has served as a coronation for first-time winners Nick Taylor (2014), Peter Malnati (2015), Cody Gribble (2016) and Ryan Armour (2017), so there’s a surplus of fuel to support your decision to invest in a current non-winner. Harold Varner III is highest among all non-winners in my Power Rankings at No. 5. Dylan Frittelli is No. 8, Cameron Davis is No. 9 and Patrick Rodgers is No. 10. Because Frittelli and Davis are first-time PGA TOUR members, they’re the most intriguing of the bunch and the Sanderson Farms Championship is a proper setting to latch on. If there’s a snub in the Power Rankings, it’s Aaron Baddeley, veteran of a T4 (2015) and T30 (2017) in Jackson. Not dissimilar to Glover’s recent trend, the Aussie connected four top 25s on two tours, and then opened the new season with a T4 at the Safeway Open. Ironically, for a guy best known as one of the best putters of his generation, it was his irons that yielded the top five at Silverado. He led the field in greens hit and ranked T4 in proximity. The advice for two-man gamers is the same. Holster Laird and consider one of the stalwarts to pair with Badds. 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 2018-19. 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. Bill Haas … RSM (7); CareerBuilder (1); Genesis (3); WGC-Match Play (8); Heritage (4); Charles Schwab (2); Wyndham (6) Chris Kirk … Sanderson Farms (6); RSM (1); Sony (4); Valero (3); PLAYERS (5); Charles Schwab (2) Martin Laird … CareerBuilder (6); Waste Management (1); Genesis (3); Valero (5); Barracuda (2) Kevin Streelman … Sanderson Farms (3); Shriners (6); Mayakoba (2); CareerBuilder (8); Pebble Beach (1); Valero (9); Heritage (5); Memorial (4); Travelers (7)

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