Sleeper Picks: The American Express

Tournament ambassador Phil Mickelson leads a field of 156 players at this week’s CareerBuilder Challenge, as the PGA TOUR returns to the mainland after starting the 2018 portion of the schedule in Hawaii. Three courses will be used this week in La Quinta, California – the Stadium Course at PGA West, the Nicklaus Tournament Course and La Quinta Country Club. Players are paired for the first three rounds in twosomes, with their pro-am partners also joining the group. The cut in the 72-hole event will be made after Saturday’s third round. PGA TOUR LIVE makes its 2018 debut with coverage from 11 a.m to 7 p.m. ET on Thursday and Friday. Click here to sign up. PGA TOUR Radio will have coverage all four days, as will Golf Channel. Here’s a look at this week’s featured groups (current FedExCup ranking in parentheses). Tee times shown are for each group’s appearance on the Stadium Course at PGA West. Click here for full tee times. Hunter Mahan (92), Ryan Palmer (202): Mahan made five starts in the fall and is making his first start of 2018; he’s showing signs of a resurgence after a couple of frustrating seasons. Palmer was a cumulative 84 under at this tournament during a four-year stretch prior to missing the cut a year ago. Stadium Course tee time: Thursday, Rd. 1, 1 p.m. ET (10 a.m. local) Patton Kizzire (1), Bill Haas (130): After moving into the FedExCup lead with his win at last week’s Sony Open in Hawaii, Kizzire stated: “Our ultimate goal is to be No. 1 at the end of the year. We’ve got a long way to go.� If he wants to know what it takes to win the FedExCup, he can pick the brain of Haas, who won the title in 2011. Stadium Course tee time: Thursday, Rd. 1, 1:10 p.m. ET (10:10 a.m. local) John Daly (210), Mike Weir (N/A): Weir won here in 2003 and is making his 16th career start in this event. Daly, now a member of PGA TOUR Champions, is making his 13th start; his best finish is a tie for seventh 21 years ago. The last time these two were paired at a PGA TOUR event was the 2006 Buick Open. Stadium Course tee time: Friday, Rd. 2, 1:10 p.m. ET (10:10 a.m. local) Patrick Reed (108), Brandt Snedeker (162): Reed won this event in 2014, making a tournament-72-hole record 32 birdies. Snedeker has two top-10 finishes here in seven starts, but is making his first appearance here in three years. Besides Haas, Snedeker (2012) is the other past FedExCup champ in the field. Stadium Course tee time: Friday, Rd. 2, 1:20 p.m. ET (10:20 a.m. local) Jon Rahm (20), Bubba Watson (184): Rahm followed a win on the European Tour with a runner-up finish at the Sentry Tournament of Champions. He’s making his second start here. Watson has five previous starts, including a tie for second in 2010, but hasn’t played here the previous six years. Stadium Course tee time: Saturday, Rd. 3, 12:50 p.m. ET (9:50 a.m. local) Zach Johnson (34), Phil Mickelson (37): Mickelson returns for his second year as tournament ambassador; in his 14 career starts here, he’s won twice (2002, 2004). Johnson has missed the cut here the previous three years. This will be the 12th event in their lengthy PGA TOUR careers that they’ve been paired together in at least one round of a stroke-play event. Stadium Course tee time: Saturday, Rd. 3, 1:20 p.m. ET (10:20 a.m. local) Peter Uihlein (51), Sam Saunders (149): Saunders’ grandfather Arnold Palmer won the inaugural event here in 1960 – and then made it his last PGA TOUR win in 1973. Palmer won this event five times; Saunders and Uihlein have yet to win on the PGA TOUR but would each love to break through in the desert. Stadium Course tee time: Saturday, Rd. 3, 1:30 p.m. ET (10:30 a.m. local)

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IRVING, Texas — Billy Horschel won the AT&T Byron Nelson with a par on the first playoff hole Sunday after Jason Day pulled his 4-foot par putt left and past the hole. That miss by Day almost wasn’t even needed for Horschel, whose 36-foot birdie chance was rolling straight toward the center of the cup before stopping just short. He won for the fourth time on the PGA TOUR and for the first time since taking the 2014 TOUR Championship for the FedExCup title. With a 1-under 69, including a 60-foot birdie putt at the 14th hole, Horschel matched Day at 12-under 268. Day had a 68. Third-round leader James Hahn finished a stroke back after shooting 71. He just missed a miraculous eagle at the 18th hole that would have gotten him in the playoff with his playing partners. Because of early morning rain that delayed the start Sunday, threesomes were used instead of the usual weekend twosomes. No one outside of that final group made a real charge to contend with the final trio. The playoff wrapped up the Nelson’s 35th and final tournament in Irving. The event will shift next year to the new links-style Trinity Forest Golf Club south of downtown Dallas. The tournament was first played in Irving in 1983, but its roots go back to 1944 as the Texas Victory Open at Lakewood Country Club, where Byron Nelson won a year before his streak of 11 PGA TOUR victories in a row. In 1968, the tournament became the first named after a PGA TOUR player. Day, who got the first of his 10 PGA TOUR victories at the 2010 Nelson, had the lead alone only once. He pitched in a 78-foot shot from the rough by the greenside bunker for a birdie at the 477-yard 15th, after two horrible shots to get in that position. His tee shot went into the rough to the far right under the trees, and his approach set up an awkward stance. But at the par-5 573-yard 16th, the easiest hole at TPC Four Seasons, Day’s wayward tee shot hit a spectator. After making sure the woman was OK, his approach shot settled pin high on the green but a 9-foot birdie chance curled by the hole. Horschel, who earned $1.35 million, also got to that green in two, and two-putted from 44 feet for a tying birdie before they both parred the last two holes. Hahn almost matched them at 12 under when his approach from 122 yards at the 18th hit on the green, spun back and skimmed over the edge of the cup. He made the 4-foot birdie putt to finish alone in third, ahead of Jason Kokrak. Kokrak went into the weekend with a five-stroke lead, the largest ever after 36 holes at the Nelson. But he shot 72 on Saturday and closed with a 70 to get to 10 under. Dustin Johnson, the No. 1 player in the world, had a closing 69 to tie for 13th at 6 under. Defending champion Sergio Garcia had birdies on six of his last eight holes Saturday to get within four strokes of the lead. But he was as quickly out of contention after giving back four strokes in a three-hole stretch early in the final round when he missed three putts of 5 feet or less on Nos. 2-4. His closing 74 put him 4 under and tied for 20th. During the stretch when Hahn fell behind his playing partners, Horschel rolled in a 60-foot birdie putt at the par-4 14th after his poor approach that led him to toss his club in the air. Hahn was leading alone again for the first time since the second hole, by one stroke over his playing partners, after making a 15-foot birdie off the fringe at the 312-yard 11th hole to go to 13 under. After Day and Horschel bogeyed the 452-yard 12th, Hahn missed a chance to extend his lead there. But his 5-foot par putt curled around the cup, the first of his three consecutive bogeys that knocked him out of the lead for good.

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NAPLES, Fla. – Brian Harman and Patton Kizzire had played plenty of golf together before joining forces for the 30th QBE Shootout. That doesn’t mean they’re used to cheering for each other. “We’re normally trying to get into each other’s heads,â€� Kizzire said after the St. Simons Island, Georgia duo shot a best-ball, final-round 61 in blustery weather to reach 30-under and win the unofficial QBE at Tiburón Golf Club. “And this week he was nice to me, which was kind of weird.â€� Added Harman: “I was hoping I wasn’t going to throw him for a loop.â€� For the second straight year Graeme McDowell finished second, this time with a new partner, Emiliano Grillo. They made par on 18 to finish 29-under, one back. Three teams shared third, two back: Charles Howell III and Luke List, who was 9-under on his own ball over the last nine holes as they shot 61; Kevin Na and Bryson DeChambeau (62); and Charley Hoffman and Gary Woodland (63), their highlight coming when Woodland aced the 202-yard 5th hole. Tony Finau and Lexi Thompson, the only LPGA player, shot a final-round 65 to finish seven off the lead and seventh in the 12-team field. At first glance, Harman and Kizzire seemed like a Mutt-and-Jeff team. They made for a funny team picture, as the 6-foot-5 Kizzire is almost a foot taller than his left-handed teammate. They weren’t even slated to play together. Harman was a late add to the field after Davis Love III pulled out to be with his ailing mother. Still, there were plenty of reasons why Harman and Kizzire worked. For starters, they’ve known each other since they were 12, when they began to clash in junior events. Harman, from Savannah, Georgia, and Kizzire, who grew up in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, took turns beating each other at AJGA, Southeastern Junior Golf Tour and other regional and national tournaments. “I think there’s a picture of him holding the first‑place trophy and me holding the second‑place trophy,â€� Harman said, “but he was short and pudgy then.â€� Kizzire did not dispute this.   “At a young age I think I got him a few times,â€� Kizzire said. “But there in our teens he had my number. We had a lot of good matches.â€� The second reason why they worked nicely as a team: They’re not only used to competing against one another, largely in practice rounds back home, they’re also fishing buddies. Harman, an avid outdoorsman, provides the boat. “He bought a boat,â€� Kizzire said, “and I called him and I said, ‘I heard I won a boat.’ No need to buy one if your buddy has got one.â€� Added Harman: “He’s only got to help me clean it afterwards.â€� Who is the better angler? “Freshwater, he’s probably got my number,â€� Harman said, “but saltwater, it’s not a competition.â€� Added Kizzire: “I grew up inland in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, so we didn’t have a lot of saltwater around. He grew up in the marsh, out on the ocean, he’s diving for lobsters and catching all kinds of fish. I have to pick his brain a little bit.â€� The biggest reason why this team made sense: They both love this time of year. Harman logged six top-10 finishes, five of them top-5s, in his first six starts last season, a spectacular run that encompassed late 2017 and early ’18. Kizzire nabbed his first two wins, at the Mayakoba Golf Classic and the Sony Open in Hawaii, over the same period. ’Tis the season to be jolly? For them it is. Both, alas, cooled off considerably the rest of the way, with Kizzire sweating it out to nab the 30th and final spot in the TOUR Championship and Harman missing the season-ending tournament at East Lake as he finished 48th in the FedExCup.  “All of a sudden I found myself in contention to make the Ryder Cup,â€� said Harman, also a two-time TOUR winner. “All that stuff just kind of overwhelmed me just a little bit, and I just started pressing towards the end of the year.â€� Well, the end of the season, anyway. The end of the calendar year has been good to him, and Kizzire. It continued to be in Naples. The winning stroke came when Kizzire reached the green with a 7-iron at the par-5 17th and rolled in the eagle putt. Harman, who had hit his second shot inside 10 feet, didn’t even need to putt. Asked why he loves this time of the year, Kizzire shook his head, as did his partner. “Golf is such a personal journey,â€� Harman said. True enough—except when you play with a friend.

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