Stanley upstages stars at Tour Championship

Here are nine tidbits from the final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am that gamers can use tomorrow, this weekend or down the road. Be looking for the Emergency 9 shortly after the close of play of each round of the tournament. Left Over Ted Potter, Jr., was the last-man standing Sunday afternoon as he picked up his first win on TOUR since The Greenbrier Classic in 2012. Paired in the final group with Dustin Johnson, the lefty birdied four of his first seven holes and cruised home to victory. He parred his final 11 holes and never saw his lead shrink to less than two on the back nine. It looked to be a daunting task as all Potter had to do on Sunday was beat Johnson head’s up, hold off Phil Mickelson, Jason Day and Chez Reavie and back up his career-best round of 62 Saturday. Check, check and check. And a REALLY BIG CHECK after he signed his card! The key for Potter was saving six chances when he missed GIR in the final round. He kept his nerve with his wedge and his putter and never showed any cracks. Entering this week he played three weekends from eight tries and his best finish was T13. He had only cashed for three other top 10’s before today in his career and one of those was at Riviera, the site of next week’s event. Second Best Dustin Johnson couldn’t beat Ted Potter over 18 holes but his birdie on the final hole helps gamers in both PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf game formats. It doesn’t sound great right now, but T2 is better than T6 on every single front. Johnson destroyed the par 5s to the tune of 14-under-par and didn’t win. I write this every week: Golf happens. There are no guarantees. There are more than a few of us who would be out our house, car or whatever this week after Potter’s stunning performance. All Systems Go Jason Day joins Dustin Johnson with the same record after two events this year, Win and T2. Both of them are in the AUTOMATIC category at this event annually as they share 13 combined top-10 finishes between them. Day’s short game, especially the putter, was the difference this week as he led the field in strokes-gained: putting during the two rounds at Pebble Beach. No Signs of Slowing Down Phil Mickelson backed up his T5 at WMPO last week with his 10th top 10 in 22 tries at Pebble Beach with T2. Lefty only made five bogeys (no others) on the week along with 19 circles for birdies. He was the most-selected player in the PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf One & Done Game presented by SERVPRO and he rewarded those investors handsomely. I was one of them and I will NEVER complain about T2 especially from a guy who hasn’t won since 2013. The last time Mickelson hit the top 10 in three consecutive starts was 2009 and it started with a win at Riviera. Devil in the Details Hey, look! Chez Reavie in the top 10 again! His outstanding run of form can be traced back to the fall of 2016. Similar to former Sun Devil Pat Perez, Reavie’s vein of form isn’t a one-hit wonder but it hasn’t found the winner’s circle, yet. Most guys who lose in a playoff don’t show up the next week but Reavie took his lesson and turned it into T2. The most interesting part of the last two weeks is that he’s doing the business on tracks where he’s never had any success. He’s dialed in regardless of where they’re playing! Run, Don’t Walk Jimmy Walker is going to test the patience and emotions of gamers next week at his beloved Riviera. Walker has made it no secret over the years that this is one of his favorite tracks to play on TOUR. His 67 on Sunday at Pebble Beach, another one of his favorite tracks, included seven birdies against one double to collect his first top-10 check since the 2016 Dell Technologies Championship (third). His round Sunday was six shots better than his round on Saturday on the same track.   Pro-Am Champs Kevin Streelman is doing an excellence Chez Reavie impersonation minus the podium finishes. He did take home the trophy this week with Larry Fitzgerald as they walked over the competition to easily win the Pro-Am. Streelman has been rattling off cuts for fun this season and most of last year but his solo sixth check is the biggest since T4 at the 2016 OHL Mayakoba Classic. Find guys who are playing well instead of breaking streaks of those who are not! Sunday Silence Please remember how great Tiger Woods was in his day before getting mad at the new stars of the game. They won’t close every Sunday. Jon Rahm has been right there the last three Sundays after his win at CareerBuilder.com. The last three Sundays he’s posted 77, 72 and 76 and fallen out of the top 10 each week. Again, nothing is automatic at this level! … Add Beau Hossler to this list for the third consecutive event he’s played in as well. His year has been excellent to this point minus the Sunday conversions but it’s all part of the learning experience. He has PLENTY of game. Study Hall Scott Stallings (7th), Grayson Murray (T8) and Brandon Harkins (T15) shared the low round of the day with 66. Murray hit the top 10 with THREE double bogeys on his card this week. Harkins now has seven top-25 finishes in 10 starts this year while Stallings picks up his first top 10 since last July at the Barbasol Championship. … Brian Gay has posted back-to-back top 10’s after his T8 this week … Paul Casey lost in a playoff to James Hahn at the 2015 edition of the Genesis Open at Riviera. He made his U.S. tune-up this week with T8. … Bubba Watson, two-time winner at Riviera, will be playing in Saturday night’s NBA All-Star Celebrity game. Now you know. … Ben Taylor won the Club Colombia Championship by six shots … Mark Calcavecchia held off Bernhard Langer by two shots to win the Boca Raton Championship on PGA TOUR Champions. … Kiradech Aphibarnrat won the ISPS Handa World Super 6 Perth.

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UPDATED THURSDAY, MARCH 10 (11 a.m. ET): After play was delayed one hour at the start of Round 1, play was suspended at 11 a.m. ET due to dangerous weather. Seventy-two players were able to get their rounds started. Will Zalatoris (11 holes), Harold Varner III (11 holes) and Tommy Fleetwood (10 holes) were tied for the lead at 4 under before the horn sounded. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9: PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – PGA TOUR officials are confident they’re prepared for what is shaping up as a potentially tricky stretch of weather at THE PLAYERS Championship. On the eve of the opening round at TPC Sawgrass the extended forecast calls for a high likelihood of thunderstorms over the opening three days. Perhaps more ominously, there could be four different wind directions throughout the tournament. As an ominous precursor, the Stadium Course was evacuated early Wednesday afternoon as storms approached the area. Saturday could prove especially challenging with 20-30 mph sustained winds, and even heavier gusts, expected out of the west/northwest. Thursday brings an 80% chance of storms and winds of 10-18 mph out of the west/southwest. The forecast for Friday sits at 90% chance of storms with an east/southeast wind of 6-12 mph. “Rain and thunderstorms are likely both Thursday and Friday as a frontal boundary drops into northern Florida and stalls,” TOUR meteorologist Wade Stettner said in his forecast Wednesday. “This front is forecast to bring periods of rain with embedded thunderstorms over the two-day period.” Temperatures are also expected to drop significantly on Sunday with a high of just 54 degrees. The wind will switch to a 12-22 mph challenge out of the north/northeast in what, weather depending, would be the final round. “By Saturday morning a strong cold front is forecast to arrive and bring additional thunderstorms,” Stettner’s forecast continued. “This front should clear Ponte Vedra Beach by noon Saturday with dry conditions for the remainder of the weekend. Gusty winds will develop behind the front on Saturday with peak gusts over 30mph at times. Much colder temperatures are forecast this weekend.” In anticipation of the high weekend winds, and the potential for weather delays over the opening two days, officials will pay especially close attention to green speeds and pin locations during the set-up process. With the natural drainage on and around the greens only a few pin locations would be severely affected by rain, but high winds could render some spots unusable. For example, it’s unlikely there would be a hole close to the water at the par-4 fourth and island 17th holes. “We will once again meet this afternoon with the agronomy staff with the latest information at our disposal and obviously adjust our plans accordingly,” Chief Referee Gary Young said. “We are confident we will be as prepared as possible for what lies ahead. We are meticulous in every aspect but it is certainly fair to say Saturday’s winds are a point of focus for us, particularly as we could be finishing up Friday’s round on Saturday, so that affects Friday’s set up as well. “We need to keep in mind we could have a good amount of Friday’s round playing in that Saturday wind,” Young continued, “and they are opposite winds, so we need to find something that works well for both and that’s a challenge.” While in perfect weather officials would prepare and maintain firm and fast greens, the current forecast calls for a gradual decrease from top speed – as the tournament begins Thursday – to as much as an inch or an inch and a half slower speeds by Saturday. That would presumably eliminate the possibility of balls oscillating and even rolling away on the putting surfaces. Officials will take care to make it a gradual change rather than a big overnight shift so players don’t have to make significant adjustments. “Thankfully we’ve got time to make adjustments because we know what’s coming, so that helps in the planning,” Young said. “We have our target speeds for the high winds and we just need to get to that as slowly as possible.” Defending champion Justin Thomas was hoping for the best but also preparing himself for the worst. “I’ve heard horror stories from Tiger and Freddy and some guys about having to hit 5- or 6-iron into 17 on those cold north wind days, and I haven’t experienced that,” Thomas said. “When you get wind and cold temperatures like that, it’s just a different animal, and it’s really just a survival-type thing. “It’s not like I’m going into this week preparing any differently… I don’t get too wrapped up in the draw or what’s the weather going to be like Friday or what’s the wind going to be, because at the end of the day, weather people are wrong all the time.” Adam Scott, the 2004 champion, has experienced tough weather at TPC Sawgrass before. THE PLAYERS the year prior to his victory here, and the tournament the year after it, were played in tricky weather. “It’s a long time ago, but I was around for Davis Love’s win in 2003 when it was horrible, and Fred Funk’s win in 2005, that wasn’t good weather either,” Scott said ahead of his 20th PLAYERS start. “I think we played almost 36 holes on Monday that year because of all the weather delays. When this sort of weather happens the guy who really has his game in shape comes to the top. He can make those adjustments on the fly when he stands on the tee and it is a different wind than the day before, but you just easily pick the shot you need to compensate. Those in control of their swings will be the ones to watch.”

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