Scottish Open prep helps Kuchar to first-round lead

NEW ORLEANS – Jay Haas knows father time is undefeated but the veteran being called “Pops” by fellow competitors wound back the clock and showed the youngsters a thing or two during the opening round of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Haas, paired with his former FedExCup winning son Bill, contributed four birdies and a critical par save during the Four-ball opening round at TPC Louisiana as the family duo signed for a 7-under 65. It matched the superteam of Viktor Hovland and Collin Morikawa and the defending champions Cameron Smith and Marc Leishman and was just five off the morning wave lead. The 68-year-old Haas is making his 799th PGA TOUR starts, second on the all-time list behind Mark Brooks (803). He leads the record books with 591 made cuts during a storied career that housed nine TOUR wins and 18 wins on PGA TOUR Champions were he still plays today. But if he can get through Friday’s Foursomes format (alternate shot) with his son, Haas will add another record to his incredible resume – that of the oldest player to make a cut on the PGA TOUR. One more swing at father time. Currently Sam Snead holds the spot from the 1979 Manufacturers Hanover Westchester Classic at 67 years, 2 months and 23 days. When Haas made his TOUR debut in 1973 Snead finished T12 and the field included the likes of Arnold Palmer and Lee Trevino. Prior to the tournament Haas spoke of having trouble reconciling that the teams result in the tournament could be seen as secondary to the pure fact of being able to share the moment with Bill while his wife and Bill’s mother watched from the ropes. “I’m struggling with it… hopefully I can hit some good shots and make some birdies and everything, but ultimately to be with my son, again, on the grandest stage here, that’s what I’m trying to take from it,” Jay said on tournament eve. “I don’t want to just show up and go through the motions. The competitive spirit in both of us, and certainly me, I’m going to be hard on myself, but I always am. I always have been. I kick myself all the time hitting bad shots.” On Thursday the bad shots were scarce. Highlights for the veteran included a 105-yard wedge shot to a foot for their first birdie, and three 17-footers for other birdies along the way. “I had a ball today, I played well, I felt like I was helpful so that was nice. Hopefully I can continue that throughout the week and we will see what we can do. It was fun today,” Haas said after the round. When told of Haas’ exploits ahead of them the super team of Hovland and Morikawa, who both sit inside the World top 5 and were 12 and 13 years old respectively when Haas made his last TOUR start at the 2010 PLAYERS, were extremely impressed. “What Jay did today, very, very impressive,” Morikawa said. “This course has a handful of holes that are really, really tough, like you’ve got to hit a really good drive, and you’ve got probably a long iron in, a few par-3s that you have long irons in. So that’s really impressive. It really is. Some of these par-3s are playing over 200 yards. That’s an awesome effort.” Leishman, who with Smith claimed the title at TPC Louisiana a year ago, called it “beyond special”. “That’s some awesome playing from Jay. Beyond special really,” Leishman said. “My dad is here in the crowd watching this week which is cool but I can’t imagine how great that would’ve been for Bill today. Hopefully he can add that cut record to his career tomorrow. That would be awesome to see.” With Bill currently sitting 168th in the FedExCup race Jay had some initial reluctance in partnering his son during a critical start chasing the Playoffs. But the 2011 FedExCup champion wouldn’t hear of replacing him. “It’s just a good opportunity to play golf and enjoy it and have fun, but also inside the ropes be competitive and him be able to see what I’m talking about when I say either I’m struggling or here I hit a good one, what do you see here?” Bill said. “To have him inside the ropes on my team, it’s just a great opportunity, and it’s just a special week. Something I’ll remember forever.”

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With the Power Rankings for the TOUR Championship slotting all 30 qualifiers in pursuit of the 14th FedExCup title, this weekly Fantasy Insider column is predictably abridged. But that's not to say that it's without valuable and timely information. After all, the 2020-21 season begins in nine sleeps with the Safeway Open on Thursday, Sept. 9. First, the bad news. I will not be writing a full-membership fantasy ranking. Given that membership isn't turning over and with only two days in between seasons, the energy and focus is devoted elsewhere. Ever since the wraparound season was introduced in 2013, I've joked that it's stressed fantasy planning due to tight scheduling, but this year's squeeze is unprecedented. In place of the ranking will be a season primer that will read a lot like the customary introduction to the annual ranking. It'll be an evergreen guide. More on its timing below. RELATED: Power Rankings | Expert Picks | Eight things to know about East Lake While membership isn't changing, there is movement in the ranks. The next update to the Korn Ferry Tour graduate reshuffle page will list the opening order of the golfers who didn't qualify for the FedExCup Playoffs and who don't have status via a victory. Because there are no KFT grads in 2020-21, the title of the page will change. That'll be your cue for what's new if you don't already look at the date at the top. Medical Extensions will be updated at the same time as the Reshuffle. Plan on both being ready by Monday. Qualifiers will remain as fluid as it's ever been as the governing bodies around the world continue to adapt to the pandemic and how it influences their schedules. If you draft with an emphasis on who is exempt into the events included on that page, plan on no worse than the baseline constructs of how those fields have been assembled in recent memory. Anything unusual will be considered a bonus. The Rookie Ranking will be taking on a different form in 2020-21. Because there won't be any rookies to start the season, there won't be anything to rank. However, in due time, non-members will begin totaling the equivalent of FedExCup points in pursuit of Special Temporary Membership. (The target remains 288.035 points. That's a holdover from the 2018-19 season because 2019-20 was compressed.) Non-members will include the top 10 in Korn Ferry Tour points at the conclusion of the KFT Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance as they will have exemptions into all additional events in 2020-21. All three-time winners on the combined 2020-21 KFT season also will earn an automatic promotion to the PGA TOUR and could qualify as a rookie. With so many moving parts, Rookie Ranking will demand attention, just in a different way. With the Monday finish of the TOUR Championship, my preview material for the Safeway Open will slide back a day. So, the Power Rankings will publish on Tuesday, as will the season primer referenced above. Sleepers, Expert Picks and the Fantasy Insider will publish on Wednesday. We'll return to the regular schedule in advance of the U.S. Open the following week. Speaking of primers, this is a great time to reacquaint yourself with the fantasy primer for the restart of this season. It published in early June, but it can serve as a bridge into next week's primer and should help with some direction for draft leaguers. Before all of that, of course, there's the little matter of settling fantasy league championships at East Lake. Round scoring in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf isn't influenced by the staggered start of the TOUR Championship, but the bonus points earned will be based on actual finish in the tournament, not by actual score over 72 holes. As I reminded gamers in this space two weeks ago and as the old One & Done determined values for the 2019 TOUR Championship, because no FedExCup points are up for grabs in the finale, bonus points in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf will follow the same breakdown used at THE NORTHERN TRUST and the BMW Championship. So, the winner will yield 150 bonus points as a starter for his owners in the final round. PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf My roster for the TOUR Championship (in alphabetical order): Bryson DeChambeau Dustin Johnson Jon Rahm Xander Schauffele Webb Simpson Justin Thomas You'll find my starters in Expert Picks. Others to consider for each category (in alphabetical order): Scoring: Daniel Berger; Tony Finau; Tyrrell Hatton; Scottie Scheffler Driving: Daniel Berger; Tyrrell Hatton; Hideki Matsuyama; Collin Morikawa; Scottie Scheffler RETURNING TO COMPETITION Martin Laird ... Scheduled to tee it up at the Korn Ferry Tour's Lincoln Land Championship presented by LRS. He was among the internationals who didn't return to the PGA TOUR this summer. Finished 182nd in the FedExCup, but he'll keep his fully exempt status due to the eligibility adjustments announced during the hiatus. Kelly Kraft ... Also committed to the KFT event in Springfield, Illinois. This constitutes his first sanctioned start since he underwent surgery on his left hip (labrum, impingement) on Sept. 26, 2019. When he returns to the PGA TOUR, he'll have a Major Medical Extension with a full season's slate of 23 starts. NOTABLE WDs None. POWER RANKINGS RECAP - BMW CHAMPIONSHIP Power Ranking Golfer Result 1 Dustin Johnson P2 2 Webb Simpson DNP 3 Justin Thomas T25 4 Jon Rahm Win 5 Bryson DeChambeau 50th 6 Daniel Berger T25 7 Collin Morikawa T20 8 Kevin Kisner T25 9 Harris English T40 10 Scottie Scheffler T20 11 Alex Noren T40 12 Xander Schauffele T25 13 Tony Finau 5th 14 Louis Oosthuizen T25 15 Jason Day 64th 16 Viktor Hovland T40 17 Hideki Matsuyama T3 18 Matt Kuchar T59 19 Russell Henley T25 20 Ryan Palmer T40 Wild Card Rory McIlroy T12 SLEEPERS RECAP - BMW CHAMPIONSHIP Golfer Result Corey Conners T33 Matthew Fitzpatrick T6 Mackenzie Hughes T10 Mark Hubbard T51 Matthew Wolff T16 BIRTHDAYS AMONG ACTIVE GOLFERS ON THE PGA TOUR September 1 ... Matthew Fitzpatrick (26) September 2 ... none September 3 ... none September 4 ... none September 5 ... none September 6 ... Brice Garnett (37) September 7 ... none September 8 ... none

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How it works: Each week, our experts from PGATOUR.COM will make their selections in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf. Each lineup consists of four starters and two bench players that can be rotated after each round. Adding to the challenge is that every golfer can be used only three times per each of four Segments. The first fantasy golf game to utilize live ShotLink data, PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf allows you to see scores update live during competition. Aside from the experts below, Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton breaks down the field at this year’s Wells Fargo Championship in his edition of the Power Rankings. For more fantasy, check out Sleepers, Rookie Ranking, Qualifiers and Reshuffle. THINK YOU’RE BETTER THAN OUR EXPERTS? The PGA TOUR Experts league is once again open to the public. You can play our free fantasy game and see how you measure up against our experts below. Joining the league is simple. Just click here to sign up or log in. Once you create your team, click the “Leagues” tab and search for “PGA TOUR Experts.” After that? Pick your players and start talking smack. Want to represent the fans against our experts? Click here to join the PGA TOUR Fan Council for the chance to have your picks selected for an upcoming tournament. SEASON SEGMENT

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