Rory McIlroy suffers shocking back nine at Travelers Championship

1. J.J. Spaun was among the overshadowed rookies on the PGA TOUR last season despite going two events deep into the FedExCup Playoffs. He didn’t win but he’s also gone more than six months with just one top-25 finish on the board. It explains why he’s 84th-most owned in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO (although rewarding the faithful with a lead-high 200 points through the suspension of play on Friday night). There simply was nothing to project that he’d sit comfortably atop the 36-hole leaderboard. The 27-year-old is sticking to his strengths, though, leading the field in both strokes gained: approach-the-green and strokes gained: tee-to-green. He ranked inside the top 50 last season in both total driving and greens in regulation. 2. Of the 90 golfers chosen at least once in PGA TOUR Fantasy One & Done presented by SERVPRO, Spaun was not one of them. Meanwhile, Tony Finau paces the field at 14.6 percent. He’s in the house at 4-under 138, seven strokes adrift of the 36-hole clubhouse leader. Webb Simpson was selected by three fewer gamers. While the 2013 champ is T66 at 1-under 143, it’s unlikely that he’ll be sweating the cut line as only four of the 28 stranded by darkness on Friday are within two shots. Three others are at even. Of the top 10 in One & Done ownership percentage, only 2015 champ Smylie Kaufman (No. 8, 4.1 percent) is a lock to miss the cut. 3. The weather forecasters hit the bull’s-eye this week. After the field averaged 71.17 on the par-71 test for a relatively tame opening round (that 25 needed Friday morning to complete), winds freshened a bit for Friday’s second round. The morning wave averaged 71.99, which sounds high at TPC Summerlin until you learn that the interrupted afternoon wavers sat at 72.98 at nightfall. This is the first time since the course assumed duties as the solo host in 2008 that any round averaged over par. The trend is all but guaranteed to extend into the weekend. Sustained winds midday on Saturday are expected to be at least 20 mph. 4. Robert Garrigus crafted a 6-under 65 with eight birdies on Friday at TPC Summerlin to post 7 under through 36 holes. Only a double bogey-6 at the 18th hole (his ninth of the round) thwarted a clean card that included circles on each of the three par 5s. That’s hardly a surprise for the known bomber with an underrated penchant for piling up greens in regulation, but it’s his erstwhile flat stick that has him in the hunt in Vegas. He’s currently leading the tournament in strokes gained: putting. He did the same en route to a T29 at The National this summer and he found a groove in the second half of the 2015-16 season, so this isn’t unprecedented, just impossible to see coming. The soon-to-be 40-year-old (his birthday is Nov. 11) has showed off in the wind in the desert before, too. In the third round of the 2012 CareerBuilder Challenge, he dropped in 11 birdies en route to a bogey-free 61 at PGA West’s Nicklaus Private, beating the field average on the course by 9.29 strokes in that round. Play was suspended due to gusty winds after he had already sunk nine of his birdies. 5. If there’s ever such a thing as a gimme in fantasy golf – there isn’t – Patrick Cantlay presents a compelling case. Since returning from personal and physical challenges at Pebble Beach in February, he’s been perfect in 15 starts. That now includes a position inside the top 10 at the midpoint in Las Vegas where he’s making his first appearance. He’s lurking in part thanks to an eight-hole stretch on Thursday. From Nos. 9-16, he converted six birdies, including on all three par 5s. The 25-year-old is a non-winner on the PGA TOUR, but he just exhausted his rookie eligibility in 2016-17. Still, he’s risen the bar so fast and so high in his return – nine top 25s in 2017, including in each of his last five starts – that it’s only a matter of time before he’s a winner. 6. It wasn’t that long ago when Harris English was a short-lister when you wanted some substance to complement an aggressive roster in weekly action. For his first five seasons, he missed only 27 cuts and withdrew during another in 137 starts for an astounding cuts-made clip of nearly 80 percent. He’s been derailed since. After going just 15-for-27 last season and finishing a career-worst 118th in the FedExCup standings, he’s opened 2017-18 with three missed cuts in as many tries. He’ll get snipped by at least one stroke when the hammer officially falls on Saturday in Vegas. It’ll be his fourth consecutive MC to establish a career long. 7. There is an argument that the Web.com Tour Finals shouldn’t imply a finish line. Sure, it determines who earns the last 25 PGA TOUR cards, but boxing out in the reshuffle category immediately ensues. Get off to a slow start and playing time all but disappears until fields expand with daylight hours in mid-April. Entering the Shriners, 11 golfers in the field had yet to crack their goose egg in the FedExCup points column. At the suspension of play on Friday, only Alex Cejka is assured of making the cut, but Sam Saunders (T13) and Roberto Diaz (T35) are poised to join him once they polish off their second rounds. Four of the other eight are already taillights (Jonathan Byrd, Nate Lashley, Sam Ryder, Andrew Yun), while Kyle Thompson (T81), Keith Mitchell (T89), Denny McCarthy (T96) and Lanto Griffin (T130) have yet to be officially knocked out because they haven’t finished their second rounds. Both the OHL Classic at Mayakoba and The RSM Classic will grant starts to the entire category, so their backs aren’t against the wall again. Yet. 8. Billy Horschel withdrew hours before his second-round tee time due to a sore left shoulder. He opened with 4-under 67 in what was his first round of the season, so this was a tough pill for gamers to swallow. The mid-tournament WD is his first in 177 PGA TOUR starts as a professional. Jonathan Randolph withdrew after eight holes of his second round, also with a shoulder injury. He also recorded his first mid-tourney WD in 53 TOUR starts as a pro. Of the two, only Horschel committed to next week’s OHL Classic at Mayakoba where he’d be making his fourth appearance. Mackenzie Hughes is slated to tee it up in Mexico as well. The Canadian withdrew early from the last two stops in Asia in October to be with his wife for the birth of their first child, Kenton Robert. 9. Jason Day announced that his wife, Ellie, is pregnant with their third child. The due date is in June, which, of course, is when the U.S. Open is contested (June 14-17), so One & Doners likely will be investing elsewhere at Shinnecock Hills. The Days live near the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide, but an appearance in his adopted hometown also is in jeopardy because it falls two weeks prior to the season’s second major. Day is 6-for-9 in his backyard but with only one top 25, a T15 in 2017. For Ben Everill’s full story that also includes the news and quotes from Day and Marc Leishman about their decision not to tee it up at the Hero World Challenge next month, click here.

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Every time we are presented with the opportunity to play fantasy golf, the first option is to play or not to play. Of course, everything in life that is optional begins with the same step, but it doesn’t always mean that the experience will be on our terms if we choose to play. RELATED: Statistically Speaking, Horses for Courses Baked into the decision is the acceptance of terms and conditions. Although they lay the foundation and framework of the pursuit, they almost always are the most under-respected components of every choice. The benefits are numerous. When you registered for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, you went into it knowing that the conclusion of Segment 4 would be different then any other stretch of the season. With FedExCup points quadrupled for the first two tournaments, FedEx bonus points also would be four times larger. That’s why we ration starts as best we can in Segment 4, and we’re all in the same boat. Focusing only on the finale, FedExCup points are not awarded at the TOUR Championship, but the tournament is not excluded from the fantasy game. It’s always nice when a term presented before your approval to play is an accommodation made for an exception. In this instance, and as detailed in Rules, FedEx bonus points at the TOUR Championship will match the same scale used for the first two Playoffs events. So, when the FedExCup champion is crowned, remain patient until the interface is updated to reflect bonus points for your R4 Starters. It might not be until Monday, which isn’t unusual, but they will be added. As for what determines how the bonus points will be applied, that also hasn’t changed. They will correspond to the actual leaderboard at the conclusion of the tournament. The actual leaderboard is determined using scores in relation to par and beginning with Starting Strokes. This means that aggregate scoring as a stand-alone measurement of performance is irrelevant for our purposes. Because all 30 qualifiers for the TOUR Championship are slotted in my Power Rankings, the Power Rankings Wild Card, Draws and Fades are on ice until this page publishes again on the Tuesday of the Fortinet Championship. It’s why Birthdays at the bottom of this page extend three weeks. In the interim, I’ll be immersed in my full-membership fantasy ranking for the 2022-23 season. I’m hopeful to promote it live right around when the field for Fortinet is released on Friday, September 9. Keep an eye on my Twitter or monitor the ROB BOLTON TWITTERFEED on the FANTASY page of the desktop version of this website. In the meantime, good luck this week and please accept my gratitude for your loyalty. You are my community and we always are in this together. Peace and love… RETURNING TO COMPETITION Cameron Smith … Slipped to sixth in the FedExCup after not playing the BMW Championship due to discomfort in a hip. The release didn’t specify which hip. He’s No. 11 in my Power Rankings for the simple reason that we need to rely on commodities in the finale. Only chasers who have burned through starts on all of the others atop the opening leaderboard should consider rostering. Ryan Armour … He’s been out for a month due to a pulled rib muscle. He had planned on returning in the opening leg of the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, but he’ll try again at this week’s Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship. The 46-year-old finished 155th in the FedExCup this season, so he’d open 2022-23 with Past Champion status if he doesn’t finish among the top 25 in the KFT Finals. NOTABLE WDs Will Zalatoris … A pair of herniated discs in his back is preventing him from giving it a go. He’ll land at 30th in the official results and his position in the leaderboard isn’t replaced. Starting Strokes are not reallocated. The announcement also included the fact that he’s going to be unable to compete in the Presidents Cup in a month. RECAP – BMW Championship POWER RANKINGS Power Ranking Golfer Result 1 Collin Morikawa T44 2 Will Zalatoris WD 3 Tony Finau T28 4 Matt Fitzpatrick T48 5 Rory McIlroy T8 6 Jon Rahm T8 7 Justin Thomas T52 8 Scottie Scheffler T3 9 Patrick Cantlay Win 10 Sungjae Im T15 11 Xander Schauffele T3 12 Viktor Hovland T35 13 Tom Kim T54 14 Joaquin Niemann T8 15 Adam Scott T5 16 Jordan Spieth T19 17 Cam Davis T35 18 Sam Burns T19 19 Max Homa T23 20 Lucas Glover 66th Wild Card Cameron Young T23 SLEEPERS Golfer (Bet, if applicable) Result Shane Lowry (+125 for a Top 20) T12 Denny McCarthy (+275 for a Top 20) T28 Aaron Wise (+110 for a Top 20) T15 Emiliano Grillo T19 K.H. Lee T5 BIRTHDAYS AMONG ACTIVE MEMBERS OF THE PGA TOUR August 23 … none August 24 … Cameron Tringale (35); K.H. Lee (31) August 25 … none August 26 … Ben Martin (35) August 27 … none August 28 … none August 29 … Carl Pettersson (45) August 30 … none August 31 … none September 1 … Matt Fitzpatrick (28) September 2 … none September 3 … none September 4 … none September 5 … none September 6 … Brice Garnett (39) September 7 … none September 8 … none September 9 … none September 10 … none September 11 … Satoshi Kodaira (33) September 12 … none

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OLD WESTBURY, N.Y. – A week ago, Harold Varner III busted the bubble and made the top 125 advancing to the FedExCup Playoffs. Now he’s projected to do the same thing again with 18 holes left at THE NORTHERN TRUST. The situations seem the same. But they really aren’t. And neither is Varner’s mindset. “Last week was a little different,â€� he said. “My job was on the line. Now that we’re here, we can, not so much attack it but you can kind of let it go.â€� When he started the Wyndham Championship, he was 138th in points. But his tie for 10th – his only top-10 finish thus far this season — moved him to 123rd and secured his PGA TOUR card for next season. Now his goal is to keep advancing in the Playoffs and perhaps make the improbable push for a spot in the TOUR Championship. No player outside the top 70 at the start of the Playoffs has ever made it to East Lake, but Varner is in position to at least take the next step to TPC Boston. His 1-over 71 on Saturday leaves him at 2 under for the tournament and tied for 22nd. He currently is one of four players projected to bust the bubble, moving to 95th if he holds his position. He would reach the Dell Technologies Championship for the second straight year if he handles his business on Sunday. “It’s insane,â€� Varner said. “I have a great opportunity now and I’m just really excited about it.â€� He might even be excited enough to check out the FedExCup rankings on a regular basis. “My rookie year, I looked at it all the time and I played well,â€� Varner said of last season, when he had four top-10 finishes. “This year, I didn’t look at all. Maybe I should start looking at it more often.â€� BUBBLE WATCH Here are the players who are projected to move inside the top 100 that will advance to next week’s Dell Technologies Championship, along with the players who are projected to fall out. QUOTE OF THE DAY Last week I was clearly obsessed with the line but this week I’m trying not to be. Every bite of the cherry you get the more chances you obviously have to get to East Lake. Hopefully tomorrow is not my last bite of cherry. TOP 5 WATCH The Top 5 players entering the TOUR Championship will control their own destiny at East Lake. Here’s a look at how the current top 5 fared Saturday at THE NORTHERN TRUST. 1. Hideki Matsuyama (CUT). Sitting at home after missing the cut. Projected to drop to fourth. 2. Justin Thomas (69). Just couldn’t get anything significant going throughout the day and is 4 under and tied for 10th. Projected to fall to third. 3. Jordan Spieth (64). A 31 on the back nine to streak ahead of the pack and set up a three-shot lead at the top. Projected to first. 4. Dustin Johnson (67). Was leading to start the round but saw Spieth blitz past. Still, he’s alone in second at 9 under. He’ll move into first with a win but projected to second right now. 5. Rickie Fowler (74). Started the day tied for the lead and with big hopes. Then made bogeys on five of his first six holes on Saturday to tumble down the leaderboard. Ended the round at 2 under and tied 22nd. Projects to sixth. FEDEXCUP NOTES Seven players start Sunday projected to be eliminated from where they sit on the leaderboard. Scott Stallings and Ryan Blaum are currently projected to be just a stroke short of the position they need, giving them every chance to gain a stay of execution. It will be a tougher ask for Vaughn Taylor, who currently projects to be eight shots back of what he needs to advance. The new man currently projected inside the top 5 on the FedExCup list is Jon Rahm. Sitting in a tie for third at 7 under, Rahm projects to fifth on the standings. “I try not to think about it too much. I just try to focus on my game like I’ve been doing till now,â€� he said. “Certainly the closer we get to East Lake, I know the pressure is going to pile up and the more important it’s going to be. Hopefully I can get in that top-5 spot going into East Lake and be a little less stressed.â€� Patrick Reed (38 to 15), Justin Rose (32 to 20), Keegan Bradley (46 to 26), and Louis Oosthuizen (35 to 27) are players currently projected to move inside the top 30 of the FedExCup standings. While the Dell Technologies Championship and BMW Championship are still to be played, the top 30 make it to the TOUR Championship.

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